Scholarship Funds

Carla was the youngest (by twelve years!) of six children born to Raymond and Shirley Gay of Houston, Texas.  At age six she underwent open heart surgery to correct congenital heart defects performed by pioneer heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey at Texas Children’s Hospital. She was a 1982 graduate of Sam Houston State University, and taught elementary grades in the Klein Independent School District for several years.  She later applied and was accepted to the University of Texas School of Law and graduated with a juris doctor degree in 1995.  Carla was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1996 and served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Municipal Affairs Section and later in the Open Records Division.

 

Carla left the Office of the Attorney General in 1998 to enter into private practice, primarily in the field of family law.  In the course of her legal career she worked in the offices of several of Travis County’s most respected lawyers, including Michael Murray, Scott Smith, Bobby Taylor and Chris Dorbandt.

 

In 2003 Carla began taking tap dance lessons with Tapestry Dance Company’s Artistic Director Acia Gray and Company member Brenna Kuhn.  Dancing not only provided Carla an outlet for artistic expression and creativity, it helped her fight against pulmonary hypertension, the degenerative condition which ultimately took her life.  She inspired us all by performing a solo piece in the 2006 Soul to Sole Festival Participants’ Showcase, and as a cast member in several years’ productions of Of Mice & Music – A Jazz Nutcracker, all with an oxygen tank on her back. Carla became a member of the Board of Directors of Tapestry and served until 2007, when her deteriorating health compelled her to leave the rigors of law practice and board service.  She was replaced on Tapestry’s Board of Directors by her husband Don, who later served as President of Tapestry Dance Company from 2011 to 2015. 

 

Carla was employed in her final years by the Internal Revenue Service, and continued to work even while fighting and beating breast cancer in 2012 and after recovering from two brain surgeries in 2014. She inspired us all by her grace, her sharp wit, and her steely toughness in the face of a lifetime of frightening adversity.