Portrait of a Lady - Liz Mitchell
Executive Speechwriter, Business Communicator
Where are you from?
Start off with a tough question, will you? My dad – 43 when I was born -- was career U.S. Navy, so before I was 12, I lived in Virginia, Maryland, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Coronado, California. Then he retired and we settled in Richmond, Virginia – but I never felt settled there. I went to college in western Massachusetts, worked at Harvard University in Cambridge (Boston) MA for 7 years, moved to Chicago in 1975, and moved to Galena in 1994.
What did you do before?
Editor at Harvard University Library, the American Library Association and CNA insurance; account executive at various public relations agencies; free-lance PR counselor, then in 1987 I became a speechwriter at the American Medical Association. I had begun to specialize in speechwriting but felt I needed to write “in-house” for a while to gain credibility before returning to the free-lance world. I stayed there until becoming an independent just before moving to Galena.
What brought you to your current position?
When I was in college, I planned to become a Presbyterian minister, but instead I got my master’s in library science. I’ve always loved to write, and when I started speechwriting I knew I had found the right form! It combines the inspirational and counselor components of being a pastor with the research I learned as a librarian.
What has been the most interesting aspect of your work?
People who use speechwriters are usually fascinating, accomplished “stars” with something really important to say, so it’s fun to get inside their heads and help them get their messages across.
What has been your biggest challenge?
That I dialed down my business while my mother was dying, and since then it has been hard to dial it up again! I know all about marketing, but I hate marketing myself!
Tell me about your family.
Married to Dick Laubhan (who just turned 80!) since 1980. When we met, he had 3 grown kids and Dan, a 12-year-old whom I consider to be my son. Dan is now an attorney with a great wife, Maria, who teaches at the College of Lake County; they have a 4-year-old, Daniel. Dick’s daughter has three offspring I’ve known all their lives: Danielle, 30, Shelby, 27, and Tucker, 18. I have one sister, Kathie, in Huntsville, Ala. (her husband is a retired NASA “rocket-scientist”), nephews in Chicago and Albequerque, and my god-mother’s two daughters, who are also like sisters to me (Anne in New Hampshire, Janet in Ascot, outside London, England).
Any pets?
Three rescue dogs: Cooey, 9; Miss Spirit, 7; and Mr. Rourke, about 5. Our home is named “Three Dog Cottage
Who are you inspired by?
My late god-mother, a loving soul and busy volunteer who in her youth had been a civilian internee imprisoned in Hong Kong during World War II. For my birthday, her daughter sent me a little stuffed bear made from her mom’s old mink coat, which “Auntie Fran” managed to keep it through the imprisonment, so our mink bears are now a symbol of survival. My dad was also a gentle soul, a great reader and a writer who dropped out of journalism school during the Depression; we often read and discussed the same books, and he was my first editor. I am also influenced by characters in many, many films and books.
What is you favorite book?
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Favorite Movie?
SO MANY, including Far From Heaven, King of Hearts, Mississippi Masala, The Object of Her Affection, Ordinary People, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and White Oleander.
What is in your refrigerator?
Always eggs, spinach, grapefruit, apricots, carrots and great cheese.
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party dead or alive, who would you invite? My deceased dad and my god-mother at one party, and at another, Peggy Noonan, Michelle Obama, Rachel Maddow, Allie Wentworth and Oprah (with whom I dined years ago when I wrote a book column for Today’s Chicago Woman).
What is your favorite vacation spot?
Too many: Door County, Maine, New Hampshire, the Berkshires (Mass.), San Diego (especially Coronado and LaJolla), San Francisco, France, England, Spain
,.
Your favorite pastime is. . .
creating hand-made cards and altered books in my art studio.
What has been your largest personal challenge?
My weight. I had lost 60 lbs on Weight Watchers, and – like Oprah – never thought I’d gain it all back. But I did, and I can’t find the “healthy eating” emotional switch to turn it back on.
What are you most proud of?
Helping raise my son; a speech I wrote that got the AMA to develop domestic violence protocols for physicians and hospitals; serving as de facto volunteer editor of The Galena Territory’s monthly Territory Times for a year; helping (in a very small way) get some Democrats elected to the local County Board!
Are you living your dream?
Until my portfolios tanked, I was close!
