Elizabeth Criswell, Dallas advocate who bridged hearing and deaf worlds, dies at 75
By JOE SIMNACHER
Staff Writer
[email protected]
June 20, 2013
Elizabeth Myatt Criswell was born to profoundly deaf parents and communicated with her hands before she learned to speak.
From childhood she worked to bridge the gap between the hearing and deaf worlds. Her accomplishments included founding the Deaf Action Center in Dallas and countless works of advocacy for people with hearing disorders.
Criswell, 75, died June 14 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano of complications following emergency back surgery.
Services will be at 12:30 p.m. Friday at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano.
“She bridged the gap culturally between the hearing world and the world of deafness … in a way that not many people have done,” said her husband, John Criswell of Carrollton. “She had a foot in both worlds.”
Throughout her life, many people assumed Criswell was deaf, because she had deaf parents and was such an advocate as an adult.
Criswell’s natural perspective was that of a deaf person.
“We’d take a car trip someplace and she would doze in the front seat … she would talk to herself in sign language,” said her husband, a former Dallas TV anchorman. “She would dream in sign language. I would wake up in the night and she would be signing.”
Born in Houston, Criswell interpreted for the deaf as a child and was signing services for First Baptist Church of Houston at 9.
In 1958, Criswell moved to Dallas, where she became director of adult deaf services at the Callier Hearing and Speech Center, now the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. She was later an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.
In Dallas, she was on 24-hour call to assist deaf people, helping them communicate with police and at hospitals in emergencies. She interpreted for people in surgery and in court.
In 1963, she was one of 24 professionals who founded the Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf, a nonprofit organization established to develop and strengthen the profession of interpreting.
Criswell’s work included signing the morning newscasts at WFAA-TV (Channel 8), where she met John Criswell. She also interpreted the Sunday services for Highland Park United Methodist Church on KDFW-TV (Channel 4).
Criswell was married to Marion Carlton until 1974.
In 1975, she married John Criswell, left the Callier center and established the Deaf Action Center, which was incorporated two years later.
“She spent a great deal of time with the Legislature in Austin … seeing to it that laws got passed to protect the rights of deaf people, who were accused or in prison,” her husband said.
In addition to her husband, Criswell is survived by two daughters, Kendra Leigh Branden of Carrollton and Karen Ann Drennan of Flower Mound; her brother, Ronnie J. Myatt of Aurora, Colo.; two stepdaughters, Katherine Elaine Criswell of Long Beach, Miss., and Julie Elizabeth Govan of Clearwater, Fla.; and seven grandchildren.
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