Roberta "Bobbie" Purvis Reed Crenshaw

Bobbie Crenshaw was a tireless advocate for Austin’s green spaces, often working in defiance of powerful political and business interests. She served on the city’s Parks Board (appointed in 1952, acting as chair 1964-69), pushed for the creation of an independent Parks and Recreation Department (1963), donated 6 acres as Reed Park (1954) and 30 acres for Roy G. Guerrero Park (1984), co-founded the Austin Environmental Coalition (1970), pressed for the Butler and Shoal Creek hike-and-bike trails during the 1960s, bought and planted hundreds of trees and shrubs along Town Lake (later, Lady Bird Lake), lobbied against private development and amusement parks on public lands, and persuaded the state highway agency to build a pedestrian bridge under MoPac Expressway (dedicated in her name in 2005).