Elizabeth Wallace McLean was the first grandchild of George G. and Ellen Scripps Booth, founders of the Cranbrook Educational Community. Elizabeth was born to Harold Lindsay Wallace and Grace Booth Wallace on March 4, 1917 in Detroit, Mich. Grace Booth was the oldest daughter of the Booth children.

Elizabeth was the first of seven students at Brookside School, where she studied until the 10th grade. Family lore has it that Kingswood School, built for girls in 1931, was created at Ellen Booth’s instigation, so Elizabeth, or Liz, could attend. Liz graduated from Kingswood in 1934, then attended Bennington College from 1934-1936. Feeling herself “over her head” at Bennington she moved to Boston to attend the Garland School for Homemaking.

She married James A. Morton on December 19, 1938, while he was a medical student at the University of Michigan. They lived in Ann Arbor, Mich. and Madison, Wis. before returning to Birmingham, Mich. They had six children. Jim died in 1959 at age 42. It was her cousin John Booth, who lived nearby, who introduced her to John McLean, Jr. They married on October 21, 1961 and John’s two boys were added to the family. John died December 26, 2010. During their life together Liz traveled the world, as part of John’s work in sales with Ford Motor Company, and for a while they lived in England.

The couple moved to Hilton Head, S.C. when John retired. Liz had many interests and talents, including gardening, cooking, photography, writing poetry and watercolor painting. She was an honorary life member of the Cranbrook House and Garden Auxiliary, a member of Sigma Gamma Association, which supports the Detroit Institute for Children and a sustaining member of the Junior League of Birmingham. She died on January 16, 2012.