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Jim told me it was
bad to go last.

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But he didn't have
to follow Ms. Kathy.

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So-- my name's Liz
Magill, and when

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I was born in Fargo,
North Dakota in 1965,

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my parents gave me a
different, but beautiful name,

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Mary Elizabeth Magill.

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I was known as little Mary
until I was about seven,

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when I started to try
to change my name.

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I was known as Little Mary
because my mother, big Mary,

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was Mary Magill.

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This is the story she
told me about my attempt

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to change my name to Liz.

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Apparently, in second
grade, in Mrs. Grips class,

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when I was learning
cursive writing,

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I just started to
write Liz on my papers.

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I dropped the M, I
dropped the Elizabeth,

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and I just went with
three letters, L-I-Z.

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When my own children
were learning

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to write in cursive,
gripping their pencils

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with their little hands, I
thought about that little Mary

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and what was going
through her head.

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Why did I pick Liz?

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Other than the
fact that it's just

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three letters, which is a lot
shorter than Mary Elizabeth.

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What did my mother think when
her namesake, Mary, decided

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to call herself
something different?

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I was obviously declaring
some kind of independence,

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but independence from what?

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Separation from what?

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I'm going to talk about that.

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But first, I want
to tell you that it

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took about six years to stick.

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It wasn't until I
was in eighth grade

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that the adults in my life
conceded that my name was Liz.

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One reason was that I was the
fourth of six Magill children

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to go to Nativity Catholic
Elementary School that

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was six blocks from our house.

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Mrs. Grip, my second
grade teacher,

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had taught Meg, Frank, and Dan.

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And she fully expected to
teach little Mary, Rob, and JR.

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My family was regulars
at the school, of course,

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and regulars at the
attached Catholic church,

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where we went-- the eight
of us-- went every Sunday.

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We went to Christmas
concerts, Easter vigils,

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we carried gifts up at Mass.

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In fact, everyone
in that community

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know me as little
Mary since I was born.

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They knew me before I
was born because they

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saw my mother pregnant
with her fourth child

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and waited with anticipation
to hear of my birth.

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This Catholic community,
both the social part of it

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and the religious part of it,
was the most important thread

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of the fabric of my childhood.

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So, of course, it took a
long time for it to stick.

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Mrs. Grip, Mr. Lynch, Mr. C,
Father Macaulay, Father Dave,

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Sister Mary, Sister Anne--

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they'd known me
since I was born.

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It was hard for them
to switch to Liz.

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I think another
reason was-- and this

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is what they would
have thought-- what

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a lovely name, Mary.

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Named for my mother, who
was a warm, generous, fun

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woman, who would be 94 next
month, if she were still alive.

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She was a woman who brought
light to every room she was in.

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And Mary-- and isn't
this a blessing--

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named after the mother of
God, the human mother of God's

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only Son, Jesus Christ.

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The mother of God, the Virgin
Mary, the blessed Virgin Mary,

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the greatest saint.

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So by changing my name to Liz,
I was rebelling or declaring

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some independence, but
independence from what?

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I had literally nothing
to rebel against.

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I had what can only be called a
charmed and magical childhood.

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My parents had an
extraordinary marriage.

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They spent all of
their time showing

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their love for us
and their admiration

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for us, the six of us.

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I have nothing but happy
memories of that childhood.

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They gave me the
greatest gift I think

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parents can give, a feeling
in me that they loved me,

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and they believed in me, and
they had confidence in me.

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But somehow, second
grade little Mary

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thought she wanted to
be a little different.

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Maybe I thought I was supposed
to replicate the lives

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that my parents had created.

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My parents were eminently
practical people.

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They were Republicans,
and they were Catholic.

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And they always put a
smile to the outside world.

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"Put a nice face on it," my
mother used to always say.

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And that's not who
I would become.

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For one, from the moment
I entered college,

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the heroes of my college
life were professors,

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as my dad affectionately
called them eggheads.

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Three historians-- one a
historian of slavery in the new

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world, one a historian
of women's history,

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and the other a historian of
the Western United States--

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changed what I wanted
to do with my life.

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They mined our past, they
looked in archives, they

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found and determined
and understood

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hard-to-read records.

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They brought to bear
knowledge that we didn't have.

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And they reshaped our
understanding of our past.

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I loved every aspect of that.

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I still remember
the physical thrill

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I felt when I sat in
the rare book library,

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finding and holding novels
that were read between 1800

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and about 1812, widely read
about women who dressed as men

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and had enormously
fun adventures.

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Not only the thrill
of that archival work,

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but the idea that each
generation of historians

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would reinterpret our past,
seemed to me to be liberating.

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Endless possibilities
of how we understood

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who we were and, I
thought, who we were today,

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and who we could
be in the future.

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The second thing that was
very different from the Mary

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Elizabeth Magill I thought
it was supposed to be

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is that I, from an early age--

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I don't know exactly when--

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didn't agree with my parents,
and particularly my father's

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politics.

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I went from a completely
insufferable teenager,

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explaining to my very
experienced and wise father,

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that he knew nothing
about the world,

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to a much more nuanced
and mature child, who

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understood and respected
my father and his goodwill.

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We actually agreed on the
facts about the world.

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We just didn't agree
about what to do about it.

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And then the third thing was
that faith, that key fabric,

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that key thread in the
fabric of my childhood life.

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I struggled mightily
with canonical teachings

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of the church, with
the role of women

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and gay people in the church,
and with the role that,

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what seemed to me
to be, shame played

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in that religion about basic
facts of the human condition--

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sexuality, foibles,
mental health.

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So maybe that's why
I shed the Mary.

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But today, as you might
have noticed on the program,

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I've got the M in there.

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M. Elizabeth Magill.

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You could ask my
husband, I'm extremely

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irritating on the subject.

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I've used Mary Elizabeth Magill,
I've used M. Elizabeth Magill,

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I've used M. Liz Magill, I've
used Elizabeth, I've used Liz,

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on every form you can imagine.

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So why am I keeping the M?

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It's partly to honor that past,
to honor that family that I

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was given, that group
of people embedded

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in a broader community,
trying together

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to make their way
through the world.

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It's also to honor the craziness
of being from North Dakota.

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In North Dakota,
when it's 45 below,

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you have to leave the car
running when you go in

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to get a gallon of milk, because
otherwise your engine block

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will freeze.

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But the M is not
just about my past,

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it's also about who I am today.

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When I'm at my very
best, I feel like there's

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some of my mother in me--

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a deep interest in
others, a desire

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to learn about them, a warmth
and a joy in everyday living.

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When I'm at my best,
I'm not talking

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like I am today about myself.

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I don't believe the
universe revolves around me.

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And I got that
from my childhood.

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When I'm at my best and happiest
and I feel the most loved,

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I'm with my family.

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And although I am a
very proud egghead,

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I have practical
common sense that I

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know I got from my father.

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So it's nice to meet you.

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I'm the daughter
of Mary and Frank.

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I'm the sister of Meg,
Frank, Dan, Rob, and John.

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I'm the husband-- the wife--

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of Leon.

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I'm the mother of
Alex and Claire.

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I'm the aunt of a
baker's dozen, 13.

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I'm a friend, I hope, to many.

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I'm a colleague.

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I'm a boss.

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I'm an employee
of President Ryan.

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I'm a provost.

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And I'm an egghead.

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I'm Mary Elizabeth
Magill, but I go by Liz.

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[APPLAUSE]

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