Mary Margaret Farabee
Advisor to the board
Mary Margaret Farabee currently serves on the Board as Chair Emeritus of the Texas Book Festival, which she chaired for eight years. She helped found and organize the Festival in 1995 in cooperation with the then First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush, Honorary Chairman. The Texas Book Festival is held annually on a weekend in November. The format includes two days of literary programs in the State Capitol and Capitol Extension and a tented area for exhibitors, children's activities, entertainment and food concessions. Open to the public free of charge, the festival attracts more than 30,000 persons annually. Since its inception, the Texas Book Festival has raised and distributed more than $1.5 million to over 500 Texas public libraries.
Other projects Mary Margaret has been active in initiating in Austin include restoration of the Paramount Theater; establishment of Philosophers' Rock, a statue of writers J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichek, and Walter Prescott Webb in Zilker Park; and the organization of the Charles W. Moore Foundation to preserve architect Moore's home and studios as a Center for the Study of Place. In 1996, Mary Margaret was awarded an Honorary Membership in the Texas Society of Architects. She has also served as president of the Heritage Society of Austin from 1980-1982. She currently serves on the boards of Peoples Community Clinic, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Phoenix House of Texas, and the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center Advisory Council.
She was honored as the Austin Board of Realtors' Most Worthy Citizen in April 1998. She was recognized as a community volunteer in fields of the performing and literary arts, historic preservation, environmental causes, and human services.
She received her BA degree in Plan II from the University of Texas in 1961 and her MA degree in American history in 1968. Her husband, Ray Farabee, is a former State Senator from Wichita Falls and served as General Counsel for the University of Texas System. She has one daughter, Patricia Carlson Albright, who lives in Austin.
