<p>Established by the Stinson family of aviation pioneers, Stinson Airport has witnessed the history of aviation since its inception in 1916.&nbsp; A native of Alabama, Katherine Stinson convinced Chicago flight instructor Max Lillie to take her on as a student in 1912.&nbsp; Katherine became the fourth licensed female pilot in the US and began touring as a stunt pilot.</p><p>Her family—including her mother, a sister, and two brothers—established the Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas.&nbsp; Both her sister and brothers were pilots as well.&nbsp; In 1913, Max Lillie convinced the Stinson family to move to San Antonio where the army had granted him permission to use the grounds at Fort Sam Houston.&nbsp; Katherine and her sister, Marjorie, almost immediately began offering instruction to US and Canadian military pilots.&nbsp; The family leased 500 acres of this land from San Antonio in 1916 and established Stinson Field.</p><p>In the 1930s, commercial airlines began using the airport and construction of a new terminal building was administered under the Works Progress Administration.&nbsp; It once again became an Army Air Corps training facility during WWII but was returned to civilian use after the war.</p><div><div>

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Katherine Stinson was known as the “Flying Schoolgirl” and was the fourth woman in the United States to receive her pilot’s license.

 Informational video of the "Flying School Girl" Katherine Stinson

Video

More information about Katherine Stinson from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture

More Info

Katherine Stinson: The Flying Schoolgirl by Debra Winegarten

Book

Information about Katherine and Marjorie Stinson from the Smithsonian

Established by the Stinson family of aviation pioneers, Stinson Airport has witnessed the history of aviation from barnstormers to jets. In the 1930s, commercial airlines began using the airport and construction of a new terminal building with Works Progress Administration funds enhanced the facility. During World War II it once again became an Army Air Corps training facility. Returned to civilian use after the war, Stinson Field became the primary general aviation airport for the city of San Antonio.  

Stinson Airport

This heritage trail includes two-dozen sites throughout Texas related to the history of women in the state and many of the leading women who have been commemorated by markers and monuments. The tour reveals the scarcity of sites related to Latina women, but it does include many innovators, educators, authors, and pathbreakers who hailed from the Lone Star State. This tour will be expanded as there are more historical markers and monuments dedicated to the influential women in Texas history, and as more of these sites are added to Clio.

<p><span>Mame Roberts was born on August 19, 1883, in Howe, Texas to James and Martha Sue Roberts. Mame Roberts lived her entire life in or near the community of Howe. Mostly self-taught and highly educated, she worked as a substitute teacher in the lower grades at the Howe Public Schools in the early 1900s. She left her work as an educator to devote her attention to promoting civic improvements and beautification.1</span></p>

<p><span>As a writer of a weekly column in the <i>Howe Messenger</i>, Mame Roberts promoted her hometown and encouraged its beautification.&nbsp; She launched a campaign to make Howe the “prettiest little town in Texas”, and it motivated other small towns throughout the state to take similar action toward beautification.&nbsp; A series of articles in the <i>Dallas Morning News </i>provided step-by-step instructions on how to carry out these beautification efforts.&nbsp; Roberts came into great demand as a speaker at garden club gatherings throughout her part of Texas.&nbsp; Her work also attracted the attention of <i>Life </i>magazine and <i>Reader’s Digest.&nbsp; </i>On May 14, 1949, she was named “Woman of the Day” by Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt on their national radio program.2</span></p>

<p><span>Mame Roberts served in several leadership positions throughout the state of Texas.&nbsp; These included: president of the Grayson County Federation of Women’s Club; president of the Texoma Redbud Association, which urged the planting of redbuds along highways in Texas and Oklahoma; and founder and president of the Howe Sesame Club. Her work, which spanned the decades before and after World War II, is a significant part of the civic history of Howe and of all the towns that put her lessons of beautification into practice.3</span></p><div><div>

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</div>

Mame Roberts lived her entire life in or near the community of Howe, Texas. She worked as a substitute teacher in the Howe Public Schools before turning to the work that would make her famous-promoting civic improvements and the beautification of her community. Her campaign to make Howe the “prettiest little town in Texas” motivated other small Texas towns to take similar actions. Roberts' column in the local newspaper was shared and reprinted throughout the region and even attracted national attention. Mame Roberts brought fame to Howe when Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt’s national radio program named her their “Woman of the Day” on May 14, 1949. A historical marker was placed in Roberts honor in the Howe community in 2002.

Mame Roberts Historical Marker

<p>Craft was an African American civil rights organizer and public servant who is best known for her crucial role in integrating two universities and multiple public businesses. Craft's mother died in 1918 after being refused treatment for her tuberculosis because of her race. Seven years after this event, Juanita Craft moved to Dallas where she worked as both a maid and a dressmaker. In 1935, Craft joined the NAACP and later worked to create 182 rural NAACP chapters. She also joined in on numerous demonstrations at colleges in Texas, several of which led to successful lawsuits that chipped away at Jim Crow in higher education.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>When she returned to Dallas, Craft opened a special program for adults who had not been able to complete their high school degrees. She later served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Children and Youth and took part in the governor's Human Race Relations Committee. In 1975 Craft was elected unto the Dallas City Council where she used her influence to improve the welfare of Native American and Hispanic citizens.&nbsp; "For the first half of my life," she declared, "they wouldn't let me in the parks. Now they're naming one after me."<sub>1</sub>&nbsp;This quote from Juanita Craft reflects her profound impact on the American Civil Rights Movement. Her NAACP leadership and many achievements are broke many barriers which led to the creation of&nbsp;a historical marker that will be dedicated at this site in early 2018.&nbsp;</p>

This 1925 bungalow was home to Juanita J. Craft (1902-1985) from 1950 to her passing in 1985. Her house here in Dallas Texas is part of the Wheatley Place National Historic District and a Dallas Landmark. It is significant for not only being the house in which Juanita J. Craft lived, but also the fact that Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. visited Craft to discuss the future of Civil Rights in America. The district is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Juanita J. Craft House

<p>The first attempt at organizing for women’s suffrage in Texas occurred in 1893&nbsp;when the Texas Equal Rights Association (T.E.R.A.) was formed at a convention held in Dallas.&nbsp; The Dallas Equal Suffrage Association (DESA) was formed twenty years later, in October 1913, to support the cause of women’s suffrage in Texas.&nbsp; Many of the women active in the movement were a part of previously formed suffrage organizations. Margaret Bell Houston, daughter of Sam Houston Jr., was the organization’s first president.</p><p>By 1917, the organization was over 600 members strong, many of whom were helping to support the war effort in Dallas.&nbsp; In March of 1917, DESA conducted a three-day “Suffrage School” that was meant to educate the public on the benefits of women’s suffrage. &nbsp;During the 1918 Texas gubernatorial campaign, members procured the signatures of 10,000 Dallas County women on a petition that backed a primary suffrage bill.&nbsp; It passed and allowed women to vote in primary elections, two years prior to national female suffrage.&nbsp; Over 16,000 women registered to vote in the July 1918 primary elections.&nbsp;</p><p>DESA eventually merged with the League of Women Voters of Dallas in 1919.&nbsp; On June 28, 1919, Texas became the first southern state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution that gave women the right to vote nationwide.&nbsp; A Texas historical marker honoring the women who fought for suffrage was dedicated in 2010 outside the Dallas County Courthouse.</p>

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A Texas Historical Marker honoring the role of Dallas women in achieving full suffrage rights for Texas women was dedicated October 14, 2010, outside the Dallas County Old Red County Courthouse. The marker is located in front of the 1892 Dallas County Courthouse, also known as the Old Red Museum. 

Women's Suffrage in Dallas County Historical Marker. 

<p><span>May Forster
Smith was born in Mountville, South Carolina on May 25, 1874.&nbsp; She received her nursing degree from Cooper
Hospital in Philadelphia and moved to Dallas, Texas in 1907.1&nbsp; When she moved to Dallas she was shocked to
find so many babies dying, often in the same hospitals as adults.&nbsp; At the time, infectious disease and poor
nutrition were killing babies at a rate of fifteen per day.&nbsp; The specialty of pediatrics had yet to be
formed and children were being treated as little adults.&nbsp; Smith knew that they needed special care to
survive and with the assistance of six other nurses, opened the first “Baby
Camp” in the Southwest.&nbsp; The American Red
Cross provided the team with four tents set up on the grounds of the county
hospital, at the corner of Maple and Oak Lawn Avenues.2</span></p>

<p><span>The
technology at the camp was primitive, but Smith and the other nurses
improvised.&nbsp; To keep the babies warm,
they would heat bricks and wrap them in towels which created a sort of
incubator for the infants.&nbsp; They would
put the legs of cribs in tin cans of water and kerosene designed to keep bugs
away from the babies.&nbsp; Word spread
quickly about the success of the camp and at least 100 babies were treated that
first summer. The success of the camp persuaded the city to create a permanent
building on the site, which opened in 1914.3</span></p>

<p><span>By 1917,
Smith was the camp’s head nurse.&nbsp; In
1929, Tom Bradford Sr., whose wife and daughter were once cared for by Smith,
donated $100,000 to build a new hospital in honor of his wife and
daughter.&nbsp; The new Bradford Memorial
Hospital for Babies opened on January 1, 1930.&nbsp;
At least two babies, deserted by their families, were cared for by Smith
and her staff for several years.&nbsp; Even
though Dallas remained racially segregated, Smith and the hospital’s Board of
Directors saw that both Black and Hispanic children were treated at the hospital.&nbsp; Smith served at the hospital until her death
in 1938.4</span></p>

<p><span>When Smith
got pneumonia in 1938 she refused to stop working.&nbsp; She died in the same hospital she had helped
to establish, surrounded by a staff that she had trained.5&nbsp; In 1948 the Board of Directors of Bradford
Hospital voted to join with two other facilities that treated infants and
children to form the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.&nbsp; In 2013, the hospital celebrated its 100th
anniversary and a historical marker was placed in honor of the baby camp that
same year.6</span></p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

In 1885, Dallas’ only public hospital was a small frame building on Lamar Street known as City Hospital.  From 1907 to 1913, May Forster Smith, a private duty nurse, worked at the area hospitals and saw the plight of infants firsthand.  She invited her fellow nurses to a meeting to identify a solution.  Smith and her colleagues convinced the Dallas Graduate Nurses Association to form a baby camp to treat infants.  The first camp in the Southwest and the third in the country opened on April 6, 1913, on the campus of Parkland Hospital.  It was originally housed in four tents provided by the American Red Cross.  Due to the generosity of charitable organizations, the camp continued to operate.  In 1947, the baby camp, Bradford Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and Freeman Clinic came together as Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.  Today it is one of the largest pediatric providers in the nation.

Dallas Baby Camp Historical Marker

<p>The museum was founded by Vicki Bass and her husband,
Edward, in 1975. It began as a small collection of cowgirl memorabilia: some
belt buckles, a couple of bandanas, and works of art. The couple kept these
artefacts safe in the basement of the Deaf Smith County Library of Hereford,
Texas, but became dissatisfied with mere preservation. They wanted to start
spreading information about the exploits of these Wild West women. In 1993 they
began looking for a new venue, and found it the following year in Fort Worth. Many
of the initial members of staff and individuals that provided financial support
were themselves devoted cowgirls, brought up around horses and cattle. </p>

<p>Architect David M. Schwarz was commissioned to design the
complex, and his Tulsa Deco design perfectly reflects the cowgirl heritage that
the museum contains. The finials are carved in the shape of local wild roses,
and visitors are immediately greeted by an enormous neon sign declaring
“Cowgirls” in bright blue lettering. A mural designed by Richard Haas depicts
five monochrome cowgirls riding through a colorful prairie, flanked by a Native
American woman and another cowgirl. Inside, the museum galleries are decorated
with carved horse heads, more wild roses, and carved art deco&nbsp;banisters. Some of the
more exceptional items include a silver saddle owned by writer and singer Dale
Evans, and a gun owned by sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Visitors can even mount a
bucking bronco, and try to stay on.</p>

<p>The museum is sited in an excellent location, and visitors
can go on to visit the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=20216">Kimbell Art Gallery</a>, the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=12509" title="Link: http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=12509">Modern Art Museum</a>, the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=3243" title="Link: http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=3243">Museum
of Science and History</a>, and the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=6391" title="Link: http://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=6391">Amon Carter Museum</a>.</p>

The National Cowgirl Museum is dedicated to the accomplishments of more than 450 past and present women in America, and seeks to inspire future generations to acquire the qualities of self-reliance and independence. Visitors can engage with interactive exhibitions, admire over four thousand works of art and artifacts, and watch documentaries celebrating the spirit of famous cowgirls. The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame honors over two hundred of the most renowned cowgirls that have ever lived. It also contains an extensive library, and continues to research the history of women in the West. 

National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

In 1815, Elizabeth Patton married Davy Crockett, becoming his second wife. &nbsp;Prior to his death, the Crockett family was living in Tennessee. &nbsp;After his death at the Alamo in 1836, Elizabeth moved her family from Tennessee to the Acton area to stake a claim on a land grant that was given to the heirs of Alamo defenders. &nbsp;She and their two sons settled on the land, 320 acres, that was granted to them by the Republic of Texas.<span>1<br></span>Elizabeth and her sons lived in what is now Hood County. &nbsp;They built two small log cabins on their land, what would later become the early frontier settlement of Acton. &nbsp;The site of the cabin where Elizabeth resided is marked by a Texas Centennial Marker, which were the first markers erected in Texas.2<br>After her death on January 31, 1860, Elizabeth was laid to rest in the Acton Cemetery dressed in widow's Black that she had been wearing since learning of Crockett's death in 1836. &nbsp;In 1911, the state placed the monument to honor the pioneer mother.3 &nbsp;The monument is located near the center of Acton Cemetery. At the site, visitors can find the statue of Elizabeth Crockett, as well as an interpretive sign that gives further information regarding her life.<br><br><br><br><br>

This monument marks the burial site of Davy Crockett's second wife, Elizabeth, who died in 1860 at the age of 72. The statue of Elizabeth graces the top of the monument and appears to be looking for her husband in the distance. The grave of Elizabeth Crockett is an Acton State Historical Site and maintained with support from the Texas Historical Commission. The burial plot has been categorized as a Texas State Park since 1949, making this the smallest state park in Texas.

Burial Site of Elizabeth Crockett

<p><span>The Twentieth Century Club of Texas is the oldest
federated women’s club, established over one hundred years ago.&nbsp; It is an entirely benevolent organization whose
goal is to give back to the community through donation and action.&nbsp; What began as an organization of twenty-nine
women from Weatherford, Texas is still in existence today.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Less than a year after its organization, the Twentieth
Century Club was federated as an affiliate of the Texas Federation of Women’s
Clubs (TFWC).&nbsp; The TFWC is the largest
voluntary association of women in the state and is completely non-profit.&nbsp; Its purpose is to combine the efforts of
women’s clubs for the improvement of education, home life, public affairs, the
arts, and Texas heritage.<sup>2</sup></span></p>

<p><span>For the first several years of the Twentieth Century
Club’s existence, the group met in the homes of its members.&nbsp; In 1916, they purchased the property on the
corner of Main and Lee street to build the clubhouse where meetings are still
held today.&nbsp; The structure was completed
in 1923, and provided the club with a meeting room, a kitchen, and a
restroom.&nbsp; In 1941 a library and a
meeting room with an enlarged stage were added.&nbsp;
During World War II, the club hosted a USO club for troops from nearby
Fort Wolters.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>The role and membership of the Twentieth Century Club and
the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs have changed over time.&nbsp; In the early 1900s membership consisted
largely of homemakers and teachers.&nbsp;
Today’s clubwomen include several women who work outside of the
home.&nbsp; Although it continues its efforts
in public affairs, many of their original projects have become government responsibilities.
The group provides local scholarships, books and school supplies to the Weatherford
Independent School District, and supports a different community organization each
month such as Meals on Wheels and Dental Health for Parker County.<sup>4</sup></span></p><div><div>

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</div>

On February 8, 1900, a group of twenty-nine women from Weatherford, Texas organized the Twentieth Century Club.  Later that same year the club was federated as an affiliate of the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs.  Since its beginnings, the club’s membership has bettered the community through four areas: world affairs, fine arts, home science, and green thumb.  The clubhouse has been the site of political forums, weddings, anniversaries, and recitals.  A historical marker was placed in front of the clubhouse, honoring its members and their activities throughout the community, in 2010.

Twentieth Century Club

First established in 1942 as the Women's Auxiliary Flying Squadron (WAFS) at Howard Hughes Filed in Hourston, TX, the program was moved to Mitchell Field in Sweetwater, TX&nbsp; in 1943 to take advantage of larger facilities and better flying weather.&nbsp; The program was then renamed as the Women's Air Service Pilots.&nbsp; Time magazine reported that the program was unnecessary and expensive and that men could be trained faster for the mission.<br><br>The National WASP Museum was created in honor of the women who served as WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). The museum is the vision of former WASP Deanie Bishop Parrish and her daughter who presented their vision to the community of Sweetwater in 2002.&nbsp; The Grand Opening was held in 2005 and every year during Memorial Day weekend a Homecoming Event is held welcoming back graduates of the program.<br><div><br>In 1942 the country was lacking in male pilots and was in need of experienced ferrying pilots to ferry trainer aircraft to Southern flight schools. As such the U.S utilized 28 civilian women pilots to do just that, effectively forming the country's first female squadron.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>From November 1942 to December 1944, 1074 additional women were trained to fly, beginning in Houston, and later moving to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX, the location of the museum. WASP is the consolidation of two programs, Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, and Women's Flying training detachment. WASP flew every type of aircraft that the Army had in its arsenal. According to Sarah Rickman, a WASP author and historian, WASP's jobs included not only ferrying, but they also towed gunnery targets, transported equipment, and personnel, and flight tested repaired aircraft before they were returned to the field.</div><div><br></div><div>Army Air Forces Commanding General Arnold was the first man to bid for WASP in reference to military veteran status, but WASP did not receive recognition until President Carter signed it into law in 1977.</div>

This museum opened in 2005 and shares the story of the Women Air Service Pilots who served the United States during WWII by piloting aircraft across the continental United States. Over a thousand pilots were trained in Houston and Sweetwater and became part of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment. The service of these women came at a vital time when there was an acute shortage of pilots, so their actions allowed more of the trained male pilots to fly combat missions in both Europe and the Pacific. The museum shares the story of the women who trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. While these women were expert pilots who flew military and civilian aircraft that were vital to the war effort, and despite the support of the Commander of the Army Air Forces, it was not until 1977 that Congress voted to grant veteran status to these women. President Jimmy Carter signed the bill into law declaring that these women had served in active duty in the armed forces of the United States.

National WASP WWII Museum

<div>Hard-pressed for pilots by mid-summer of 1942, General Arnold requested that Cochran return from England and put her Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) plan into action.&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp; A WASP flight school, opened at Houston's Municipal Airport in late 1942, outgrew its facilities and was relocated to Avenger Field in Sweetwater. The school operated here from Feb. 20, 1943 to Dec. 7, 1944, during which time it became the first and only all-women military flying school in the world.&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp; The program successfully trained women to fly every kind of mission short of combat, releasing male pilots for overseas duty. Of the 25,000 women who applied for WASP flight training, only 1,830 were accepted to the program. Of this number 1,074 went on to gain their silver wings and fly over 60 million miles on operational duty; 38 of them lost their lives serving their country. Considered civilian employees during the war, WASP pilots finally gained military benefits after special legislation passed in 1977.</div>

This historic marker commemorates the World-War II training program for women at Avenger Field in Sweetwater. Over one thousand graduates of the program nationwide joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots and flew non-combat missions throughout the war.  

Women Airforce Service Pilots Marker

<p><span>Emma Susan
Daugherty Banister was born in Forney, Texas on October 20, 1871 to Bailey and
Martha Ann Daugherty.&nbsp; Her father had
come to Forney from Alabama before the start of the Civil War.&nbsp; He was murdered in 1878.&nbsp; After his murder, Emma stayed with her family
for a few years before moving to Goldthwaite to live with her uncle and finish
school.&nbsp; She got her certificate in
teaching and taught in Turkey Creek, Mills County, and Needmore.1</span></p>

<p><span>On September
25, 1894, Emma married widower John Banister, a former Texas Ranger and a
special agent of the United States Treasury Department.&nbsp; After traveling for a few months, the couple
settled in Santa Anna, Texas.&nbsp; It was
here Emma assumed the responsibility of raising Banister’s four young children
from his previous marriage as well as bearing five of her own with him.&nbsp; John was elected sheriff of Coleman County in
1914 and the family moved from their farm in Santa Anna to the first floor of
the Coleman County Jail.&nbsp; As John’s
office deputy, Emma was responsible for buying supplies, running the household,
and preparing meals for the prisoners.2</span></p>

<p><span>On August 1,
1918, John Banister died of a stroke.&nbsp;
After discussion among the commissioners of Coleman County, they appointed
his wife, Emma Daugherty Banister to complete his term. &nbsp;She ran the office efficiently, answering
mail, directing deputies, and managing the prisoners.&nbsp; She declined the county commissioners offer
to place her name on the ballot for the November elections for another term in
office.&nbsp; At the completion of the term,
she and her family moved back to the Banister home in Santa Anna.3</span></p>

<p><span>In her later
years, Emma never sought credit or attention for her time as the sheriff of
Coleman County.&nbsp; The oil boom allowed her
to live comfortably.&nbsp; She donated a large
collection of Indian artifacts from her husband’s law enforcement career to the
Fort Concho National Historic Landmark Museum in San Angelo.&nbsp; She died on June 4, 1956 and is buried at the
Santa Anna Cemetery where a historical marker commemorating her life was placed
in 1986.4</span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

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Emma Susan Daugherty Banister was born in Forney, Texas on October 20, 1871.  On September 25, 1894, she married John R. Banister, a former Texas Ranger and a special agent of the United States Treasury Department.  John Banister was elected sheriff of Coleman County in 1914. On August 1, 1918, John Banister died and the commissioners of Coleman County appointed his wife to complete his term in office, making her the first woman sheriff in the United States.  After her death in 1956, she was buried in Santa Anna Cemetery and a Texas Historical Commission subject marker has been placed there in her honor.

Emma Daugherty Banister Historical Marker

<p>Mollie
Wright Armstrong was born in Bell County, Texas on January 23, 1875, to Thomas
and Elizabeth Wright.&nbsp; She briefly
attended Baylor Female College where she met her future husband, Walter David
Armstrong.&nbsp; After they married in 1892,
they moved to Brownwood, Texas.&nbsp; Her
husband was a watchmaker, and he and his brother opened a store, and as was
custom for general stores at the time, it inventoried eyeglasses.&nbsp; Mollie’s interest in optometry began in this
store when a traveling salesman prescribed her with eyeglasses that eventually
cured her of chronic headaches.1</p>

<p>She
completed a correspondence course through the Kellum and Moore School of
Optometry, excelled in her studies, and finished her degree in Refraction at
the Atlanta, Georgia campus of the school in 1899.&nbsp; She returned to Brownwood and opened an
optical department in the family store, making her the first female optometrist
in the state of Texas and the second in the United States.2</p>

<p><span>She played a
vital role in the 1921 passage of Texas’ first optometry law, the law governing
the profession.&nbsp; She became a member of
the Texas Board of Examiners in Optometry and served as President and Vice-President
of the board for twenty-four years.&nbsp; She
was President of the Texas Optometry Association (TOA) from 1923 to 1925, and
also served later as their director of publicity.&nbsp; According to optometrist and author Weston A.
Pettey, “Dr. Mollie had an uncanny ability at securing publicity for optometry.”3&nbsp; When the <i>Texas
Optometrist, </i>a publication by the TOA, was first released Armstrong was
their first editor.&nbsp; It was because of
her work that the first optometric professional liability policy was made available
to optometrists nationwide.&nbsp; This effort
afforded the opportunity to became a trustee of the American Optometric
Association.&nbsp; In 1927 she organized the
Texas Woman’s Auxiliary to the American Optometric Association and was
appointed a regional director of that auxiliary.4</span></p>

<p>Mollie was
also active in civic affairs in Brownwood.&nbsp;
She organized the American Legion Auxiliary, the Business and
Professional Women’s Club, and the Civic League of Brownwood.&nbsp; She also served as director of the Brownwood
Chamber of Commerce and represented her district as a member of the State
Democratic Executive Committee.5 &nbsp;She served in these capacities until her death in 1964.</p>

<p>A historical
marker was placed outside the optometry office of Dr. Randy Ethridge in
Brownwood, Texas in 2008.&nbsp; B.J. Avery,
executive director of the Texas Optometric Association in Austin, said at the
dedication of the marker, “She (Mollie) would be pleased and proud to know
where this profession has gone.&nbsp;&nbsp; Mollie
wasn’t about gender.&nbsp; She just did what
she thought she needed to do.”6</p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

Mary Elizabeth (Mollie) Wright Armstrong was instrumental in establishing optometry as a profession in Texas during the first half of the 20th century.  Mollie’s interest in optometry began when a traveling salesman fitted her with glasses that would cure her of chronic headaches.  She completed an optometry degree in 1899 and opened an optical department in their family store in Brownwood.  She became a leader in her profession, and her accomplishments are commemorated by this historical marker which was dedicated in 2008.

Mollie Wright Armstrong Historical Marker

<p>Harriet “Hallie”
Earle was born on September 27, 1880 in a log house in McLennan County,
Texas.&nbsp; Hallie was the youngest of eight
children.&nbsp; Her father, Major Isham
Harrison Earle, was a Civil War veteran.&nbsp;
Hallie came from a long line of physicians, including both of her grandfathers
and several uncles.1</p>

<p>Earle
received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Baylor University in Waco,
where she excelled in mathematics.&nbsp; After
graduation, Earle taught school in Gainesville, Texas, and entered into medical
school at the Baylor University Medical School in Dallas.&nbsp; She established a record of the highest grade
point average earned by any student, male or female, to that date.&nbsp; She received her M.D. in 1907 and was the
only female in her graduating class.2</p>

<p>Earle opened
her Waco office in 1915 and built her private practice around the treatment of women.&nbsp; She was the first licensed female physician
in Waco.&nbsp; Earle also assisted with
medical examinations of female coeds enrolled at Baylor University.&nbsp; She had a significant number of paying
patients at her practice, but she was also seen as a humanitarian for her
persistence in refusing to turn anyone away if they needed medical attention,
and treated a significant amount of her patients free of charge.3</p>

<p>After
retiring from medicine in 1948, she followed in her father’s footsteps and
became a medical observer for the United States Department of Commerce.&nbsp; She was appointed as the only Central Texas weather
observer in 1916.&nbsp; In 1960, the United
States Weather Bureau recognized her with the John Campanius Holm Award,
granted annually to honor cooperative observers for outstanding accomplishments
in the field of meteorological observations.4</p>

<p>On November
1, 1963, Harriet “Hallie” Earle died and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in
Waco.&nbsp; In 1996, the Texas Historical
Commission placed a marker near her grave acknowledging her achievements in the
medical field.</p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

Harriet (Hallie) Earle earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Baylor University, and a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.  In 1907, Dr. Earle became the first licensed female physician in McLennan County and had her own practice in Waco, Texas from 1915 to 1948.  After her retirement, she became a farmer and a weather observer for the United States Department of Commerce.  She died in 1963 and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, where a historical marker was placed in 1996 by the Texas Historical Commission for her contributions to Waco.

Harriet "Hallie" Earle Historic Marker and Gravesite

<p>Annie Webb
Blanton was born on August 19, 1870 in Houston, Texas.&nbsp; She was one of seven children born to Thomas
Lindsay and Eugenia (Webb) Blanton.&nbsp; Upon
her graduation from LaGrange High School in 1886, she began teaching at a rural
school in Fayette County.&nbsp; Her father died
in 1888 and she then moved to Austin and began teaching in both elementary and
secondary schools.&nbsp; She supported herself
through teaching while attending the University of Texas, where she graduated
in 1899.1</p>

<p>Blanton
served on the English faculty of North Texas State Normal College, now called
the University of North Texas, from 1901-1918.&nbsp;
It was here she became active in the Texas State Teachers Association
and was elected President of the association in 1916.&nbsp; She was the first woman to hold this
position.2</p>

<p>In the July
1918 primary, when Texas women exercised their state voting rights for the
first time, Blanton defeated two men by a large margin for the office of State
Superintendent for Public Instruction.&nbsp; Her
victory in the general election in November made her the first woman in Texas
elected to state office.3</p>

<p>During her
time as the superintendent, a system of free textbooks was established, teachers’
salaries were raised, and efforts were made to improve rural education.&nbsp; She served as the State Superintendent
through 1922, when she did not seek a new term but instead ran unsuccessfully
for the United States Congress.&nbsp; She
returned to the University of Texas where she received her Master’s Degree in
1923 and received her PhD from Cornell University in 1927.&nbsp; She returned to the University of Texas in
that same year and remained an educator there the rest of her life.4&nbsp; While teaching at the University of Texas,
Blanton founded the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an honor society for women
teachers which is still in existence today and has over 150,000 members.5</p>

<p>Blanton died
in Austin on October 2, 1945, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.&nbsp; Public schools are named for her in Austin,
Dallas, and Odessa, and a women’s dormitory at the University of Texas also
bears her name.&nbsp; In 2013, Blanton was the
first woman of Denton County to be the subject of a state historical marker.6</p>

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<p><br></p></div><div>

</div>

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Annie Webb Blanton was a suffragist, educator, and author from Texas.  She wrote a series of grammar textbooks including Review Outline and Exercises in English Grammar (1903), Advanced English Grammar (1928), and The Child of the Texas One-Teacher School (1936).  She was the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office as the Superintendent of Texas Public Instruction in 1918.  This historical marker was placed in her honor for her contributions to education in Texas.

Annie Webb Blanton Historical Marker

<p><span>Jane
Yelvington McCallum was born in La Vernia, Texas on December 30, 1877, to
Alvaro Leonard and Mary Fullerton Yelvington. She attended school in Wilson
County and Dr. Zealey’s Female College in Mississippi from 1892 to 1893.&nbsp; She studied at the University of Texas for
four years between 1912 and 1924 but never received a degree.&nbsp; She married Arthur McCallum Sr. in 1896 and
they eventually moved to Austin, where he served as the school superintendent
from 1903 to 1942.&nbsp; The couple had five
children together, one daughter and four sons.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Jane McCallum
first entered politics by campaigning for women’s suffrage and prohibition.&nbsp; In 1915 she became president of the Austin
suffrage association and began years of lobbying for the right to vote, giving
pro-suffrage speeches, and writing for two local newspapers, <i>The Austin American </i>and <i>Austin Statesman.&nbsp; </i>During World War I, as the chairman of
the Liberty Loan Drive, she led Austin women in raising nearly $700,000 for the
war effort yet they still did not have the right to vote.<sup>2</sup></span></p>

<p><span>After the ratification
of the 20th amendment, she concentrated on political reform.&nbsp; She headed publicity efforts for the League
of Women Voters of Texas and served as executive secretary of the Women’s Joint
Legislative Council.&nbsp; The Petticoat Lobby
as it was often called was a coalition of six statewide women’s organizations
that lobbied for education bills, prison reforms, prohibition control, maternal
and child health, and eradication of illiteracy and child labor.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>In 1926 she
led the Petticoat Lobbyists in campaigning for Daniel J. Moody’s bid for the
position of governor.&nbsp; After his win,
Moody appointed her Secretary of State in January 1927, and she retained the
position under Governor Ross Sterling from 1931 to 1933.&nbsp; This made her the only person in Texas history
to hold the position under two governors and for more than two terms.&nbsp; In 1927, shortly after taking the office, she
discovered in the State Capitol an original copy of the Texas State Declaration
of Independence.&nbsp; Her restoration and
displaying of the Declaration became one of her proudest moments in the office
she held.<sup>4</sup></span></p>

<p><span>During the
1950s, <i>Texas Parade </i>published some of
her works, including excerpts from her unpublished manuscript “All Texans Were Not
Males.”&nbsp; After leaving the political
arena she participated in numerous organizations including the Texas Fine Arts
Association, the American Association of University Women, the Colonial Dames
of America, the League of Women Voters, the Austin Shakespeare Club, and the
Austin Women’s Club.&nbsp; On August 14, 1957,
Jane McCallum died and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Austin.&nbsp; She is remembered for her lifelong dedication
to giving women a voice in the political process and making sure that their
voice was heard.<sup>5</sup></span></p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

Jane Yelvington McCallum was one of the most prominent leaders of the women’s suffrage movement in Texas.  Jane McCallum lived in this house with her husband and their five children.  As a member of the Texas Joint Legislative Council, nicknamed the Petticoat Lobby, she worked for political and social reform through the Texas legislature.  She was appointed to the office of Secretary of State in 1927 by Governor Dan Moody and was reappointed in 1931 by Governor Ross Sterling.  While in office she discovered and had preserved an original signed copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Jane Yelvington McCallum House

<p>Jane Herbert
Wilkinson Long was born in Maryland in July 1798.&nbsp; She was the tenth child of Anne and William
Wilkinson. Both of her parents were deceased by the time she turned fourteen, leaving
her an orphan at a young age.&nbsp; An older
sister who lived in Natchez, Mississippi took her in and it was here in
Mississippi that Jane would meet her future husband, Dr. James Long.&nbsp; After a whirlwind courtship, they married in 1815, when Jane was sixteen years old.1</p><p>Shortly
after their marriage, James was chosen to lead an expedition to Nacogdoches,
Texas, and Jane became one of the first white women to brave the Texas
frontier.&nbsp; However, two months after
arriving she was forced to flee Nacogdoches when Spanish troops from San
Antonio threatened the frontier.&nbsp; When
she again returned to Texas in 1821, it was to Fort Las Casas near Galveston Island. James
would again leave on another excursion that was expected to take a month, but
was instead captured by the Mexicans and killed.&nbsp; Jane was a widow at 24 years of age.2</p><p>Jane
received a league and a labor of land as one Stephen Austin’s colonists and
settled down in an attempt to farm the land.&nbsp;
When that didn’t turn out as she has planned, it left her unable to sufficiently
care for her family, so she opened a boarding house in 1832 near the town of
Brazoria, Texas and ran it for several years.&nbsp;In 1837 Jane moved to Richmond and on this site opened another boarding
house which became a center for social and political activities as well as
lodging for prominent Texans and European visitors.&nbsp;The busy tavern and boarding house became a
popular site of political activity and her&nbsp;guests included Steve Austin and Sam Houston.3<br></p><p>On
December 30, 1880, Jane Long passed away at the age of 82 on her own plantation
in Richmond, Texas.&nbsp; She is buried in a
cemetery there with an inscription on her tombstone that reads “Mrs. Jane H.
Long, The Mother of Texas”.4</p><div><br>





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Born in Maryland in 1798, Jane H. Wilkinson moved to Mississippi after becoming an orphan and became the ward of her famous relative, General James Wilkinson, field commander of the United States Army. Jane married Dr. James Long in 1815 and later followed him on an expedition to free Texas from Spain. In 1821 her husband led his forces into battle, leaving Jane alone with their daughter Ann near Galveston. Her tenacity and strong will to survive a tough winter in spite of her husband's absence earned her the name "Mother of Texas".  Her boarding house in Richmond became a place of prominent social and political activity.

Site of Jane Long's Boarding House

<div>The Center received YWCA branch status in 1920. Known as the Blue Triangle Branch YWCA, the center offered athletic, musical, and educational programs for girls. The center also opened a boarding house in 1921, which lasted until the end of the decade. The residence services were closed during The Great Depression; however, services were expanded to help women and girls find employment.</div><div><br><div>In the forties, plans to build a new center started being made. The site for the building was donated by a group of women and construction began in 1950. The building was designed by notable Houston architects Hiram A. Salisbury and Birdsall B. Briscoe. Briscoe, along with Susan Clayton, also designed The Clayton House, which is now home to the Clayton Genealogical Library. The center is built in a Transitional style, which displays late Art Moderne elements.</div></div><div><br><div>Although the center ended its affiliation with the YWCA in 1998, the center still operates as a community center offering youth and adult programs as well as space for other groups to hold events. The center offers a number of events and programs, such as a swim team, gold tournaments, and summer day camps for kids. The center also includes a mural depicting notable African American women, such as Sojourner Truth.</div></div><div><br></div>

In the early 1900s, the African American community in the area expressed the desire to provide a recreational center for its youth and for African American troops stationed at Camp Logan. Mary L. Jones began to form an organization focused on aiding the spiritual growth of young women and the Camp Logan Activities Committee began offering civic and morality instruction. During the First World War, a national representative from the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) worked to open a recreation center. The center opened in 1917 and was housed in the Masonic building at 806 Clay.

Blue Triangle Branch, YWCA

<p><span>Janis Lyn
Joplin was born on January 19, 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas to Dorothy Bonita
East and Seth Ward Joplin.&nbsp; She was the
first of three children to be born into the Joplin family.&nbsp; She began singing while still in high school
and was influenced by singers such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Lead
Belly.&nbsp; While in attendance at Thomas
Jefferson High School she was often bullied.&nbsp;
She was constantly taunted and called names such as “pig”, “nigger lover”,
and “creep”.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Joplin graduated
from high school in 1960, attended college for a short time at the University
of Texas at Austin, before leaving in 1963 for San Francisco.&nbsp; She eventually ended up in the Haight-Ashbury
district where she and future Jefferson Airplane guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, recorded
a number of blues standards that was later released as the “Typrewriter Tapes”
bootleg.<sup>2</sup>&nbsp; It was during this time that her drug and alcohol
consumption significantly increased, so much so that her friends encouraged her
to move back to Texas.&nbsp; Using money that
was raised by her friends at a “bus fare” party, she returned to Port Arthur in
the spring of 1965.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Once back in
Port Arthur, Joplin changed her lifestyle.&nbsp;
She avoided drugs and alcohol completely, surrounded herself with a new
group of friends, and enrolled at Lamar University in Beaufort, Texas as a sociology
major.&nbsp; This lasted for nearly a year,
before she returned to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco and
joined Big Brother and the Holding Company as their lead singer.&nbsp; This was also the time when Joplin adopted
her now famous style of big glasses, even bigger hair, and wild attire.<sup>4</sup></span></p>

<p><span>The band’s
increasing number of performances and ever-growing fan base caught the
attention of Columbia Records, and they released their first major record in
1967. It received limited attention but their fan base continued to grow.&nbsp; Joplin played a large part in the production
and arrangement of the Holding Company’s second album, Cheap Thrills.&nbsp; “Piece of My Heart” soared to the #1 spot,
the album sold over a million copies, and Janis became an “overnight”
sensation.<sup>5</sup>&nbsp; From this point forward, her departure from the
group and an entrance into a solo career were almost inevitable.&nbsp; She left the group in 1969 and created her
own band, the Kozmic Blues Band, who would accompany her at the famous
Woodstock Festival.<sup>6</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Joplin
assembled a new backup group, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, in 1970 and from June
28 to July 4 joined the Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, and others on the
Festival Express train tour through Canada, which lasted for three evenings and
Joplin headlined each event.<sup>7</sup>&nbsp;This was one of the last touring experiences for Joplin.&nbsp; She checked into the Landmark Motor Hotel in
Hollywood, California on August 24, 1970, and died in her room of a drug
overdose less than two months later.&nbsp; The
official cause of death was a heroin overdose possibly combined with alcohol
consumption.<sup>8</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Janis Joplin
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and was awarded a Lifetime
Achievement Grammy posthumously in 2005.<sup>9</sup>&nbsp; She is considered one of the greatest female
rock singers the world has even known, and opened the door to rock music for
female musicians that followed.</span></p>

Janis Joplin was an influential female singer of the 1960s known for her powerful, distinct voice and her turbulent lifestyle.  Joplin rose to fame in 1967 during an appearance at a music festival in California as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company.  She released two albums with the band before leaving to pursue a solo career.  She appeared at the famous Woodstock festival in 1969 and released a third album in early 1970.  She died of a drug overdose in October 1970, which sent shock waves through the musical world and stunned her fan base.  Her childhood home still stands in Port Arthur commemorated by a Texas State Historical Marker.

Janis Lyn Joplin Childhood Home and Historical Marker

<p>Mildred Ella
Didrikson was born in Port Arthur, Texas on June 26, 1911.&nbsp; Her mother, Hannah, and her father, Ole, were
immigrants from Norway.&nbsp; She moved with
her family from Port Arthur to Beaufort at the age of four.&nbsp; There is a rumor that she acquired the
nickname “Babe” (after major league baseball player, Babe Ruth) after hitting
five home runs in a childhood baseball game, but the reality was that her
mother had called her “Bebe” (Norwegian for Babe) since she was a toddler.1</p>

<p>Mildred was
the sixth of seven children and times were often difficult for the Didrikson
family.&nbsp; Mildred worked at many part-time
jobs, including sewing gunny sacks at a penny a sack.&nbsp; She was an excellent seamstress and made many
of the clothes that she and her siblings wore.&nbsp;
She won a sewing competition at the South Dallas State Fair in Beaumont
in 1931.&nbsp; She attended school at Beaumont
High School, but was never a successful student.&nbsp; She eventually dropped out with her parents’
permission and moved to Dallas to play basketball. &nbsp;It was here that her athletic career began to
soar.</p>

<p>After a
short but successful career in basketball, Babe turned her attention to track
and field.&nbsp; Babe had read about the 1928
Olympics in her dad’s newspapers and decided that she wanted to be an Olympic
athlete and began training with her sister, running through their neighborhood
and jumping hedges as they went along.3&nbsp;&nbsp;During the Olympic trials she qualified for
five events, but women were only allowed to participate in three.&nbsp; At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, she won
two gold medals and one silver medal at the age of twenty-one.&nbsp; She received a gold medal for the javelin
throw, a gold medal for the 80-meter hurdles, and a silver medal in the high
jump.4</p>

<p>Didrikson is
probably best known for her achievements in golf.&nbsp; She won 82 tournaments over her golfing
career.&nbsp; She took up golf in 1933 and was
considered a professional shortly after because she gave advertising
endorsements.&nbsp; At the 1938 Los Angeles Open,
Babe met her future husband, George Zaharias, a wrestler and part-time actor
from Colorado.&nbsp; After a short courtship,
they married in December of that same year.&nbsp;
Four months after they married, George whisked her away on a vacation to
Australia, but typical of their status as a power couple, he lined up an exhibition
for her to play while there, and Babe’s sparkling personality had now become an
international affair.5</p>

<p>In 1943,
Babe was awarded amateur status as a golfer which enabled her to play in a
wider array of tournaments.&nbsp; Between 1943
and 1947 she won 17 tournaments in row.&nbsp;
In the 1940s women’s professional involvement in golf was limited.&nbsp; Her husband suggested that they create a
women’s professional tournament circuit.&nbsp;
George worked to find financial backers while Babe worked with fellow
female golfer Patty Berg to co-found the Ladies Professional Golf Association
(LPGA) in 1949.&nbsp; Berg was President of
the LPGA the first year, and then Babe held the position for the rest of her
life.6</p>

<p>In 1953 Babe
was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent a colostomy.&nbsp; She returned to the tournament circuit three
months after the surgery.&nbsp; This was
important to prove to spectators and to herself that she still had what it took
to play professional golf.&nbsp; She won a few
tournaments here and there, but never again played to the caliber for which she
had been previously known.&nbsp; After
battling her disease for over three years, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
passed away on September 27, 1956 in Galveston, Texas.7</p>

She was voted the World’s Greatest Woman Athlete
of the first half of the 20th century by the Associated Press, and was
the only athlete to be named Woman of the Year by the Associated Press six
times (1931, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, and 1954).&nbsp;
She was named the Sports Illustrated “Female Athlete of the 20th
Century—Individual Sports” and was named the 10th Greatest North
American Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN.8<div><div>

</div>

</div>

Since its opening in 1976, the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum has worked to share the history of the most influential female athlete of the early 20th century. Ella "Babe" Didrikson dominated women's basketball, golf, and track and field from the 1930s to 1950s. The museum is free and open to the public, and includes trophies and awards that Zaharias acquired throughout her career. The museum also holds a variety of exhibits containing sports memorabilia, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Funds raised by the museum helps to fund scholarships for female student athletes at Lamar University.  

Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center

<p><span>Margaret (Margo) Virginia Jones was born on December
12, 1911, in Livingston, Texas.&nbsp; She was
the second child and only daughter of Richard and Martha Jones.&nbsp; She graduated from Livingston High School at
the age of fifteen and began school at the Girls’ Industrial College of Texas
in Denton, known today as Texas Woman’s University.&nbsp; She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech in
1932 and a Master’s Degree of Psychology and Education in 1933. After earning
her degrees, she worked and studied theater at the Southwestern School of the
Theater in Dallas.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>In 1935, Margo began traveling around the world seeing
theater in Japan, China, India, Africa, England, and France.&nbsp; Margo returned to Texas and founded the Houston
Community Players in 1936 and directed in that theater until 1942.&nbsp; She earned national attention for her work
and in 1939 was named by <i>Stage </i>magazine
as one of twelve outstanding theater directors outside of New York.&nbsp; She was the only woman selected.<sup>2</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Margo met playwright Tennessee Williams in 1942 and it
would change the course of her career.&nbsp;
She directed his play <i>You Touched
Me </i>at playhouses in both Pasadena and Cleveland that would bring Williams
to the attention of national theater critics.&nbsp;
During her work with Williams, she had been developing an idea that
would change the face of American theater.&nbsp;
She wanted to establish a network of non-profit, professional theaters
outside of New York City that would present plays that were up and coming, as
well as the classics.&nbsp; In 1944, she
proposed the idea to a Dallas theater critic and he encouraged her to apply for
a Rockefeller fellowship.&nbsp; She began the
fellowship in 1944, but interrupted her work to co-direct Williams’ play <i>The Glass Menagerie. </i>With the money and success
she acquired from this job, she was able to open her first prototype theater in
Dallas.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>The Dallas Civic Theater opened its doors in
1947.&nbsp; The theater was the first
professional arena theater (theater-in-the-round) in the country and was the
first non-profit, professional theater.&nbsp;
The first season of the theater included William Inge’s <i>The Dark at the Top of the Stairs </i>and
Tennessee Williams’ <i>Summer and
Smoke.&nbsp; </i>Later seasons included the works
of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Dorothy Parker.&nbsp;
Margo took two plays from her theater in Dallas and produced them on
Broadway as well.&nbsp; In 1955, after it had
been turned down by Broadway producers as “too controversial”, <i>Inherit the Wind </i>was produced in the
Dallas Civic Theater and after its immense success, made its way to Broadway.<sup>4</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Margo died in Dallas in 1955 at the age of 44.&nbsp; She had been accidentally poisoned by carbon
tetrachloride that had been used to clean her apartment’s carpet.&nbsp; Today, strong regional theater companies
continue to thrive throughout America, which was Margo’s dream of a
decentralized theater.&nbsp; Her burial site
in Forest Hills Cemetery in Livingston, Texas has a historical marker dedicated
by the Texas Historical Commission honoring her work in the world of theater.<sup>5</sup></span></p>

<div><div><br>

</div>

</div>

Margaret “Margo” Jones, a native of Livingston, Texas, was one of the leading figures of American theater.  She played a key role in the careers of many actors and playwrights including Tennessee Williams and William Inge.  She directed two well-known productions, The Glass Menagerie and Inherit the Wind, on Broadway. She was an advocate for non-profit professional theaters and theater-in-the-round, and she carried out these ideas both on Broadway and in her own theater in Dallas.  She died in Dallas in 1955 but her influence on the theater continues to exist today. 

Margaret "Margo" Jones Burial Site and Historical Marker

<p><span>Karle Wilson
Baker was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 13, 1878 to William Thomas
Murphy and Kate Florence Wilson.&nbsp; Her
first name was originally spelled Karl with the “e” added later, first appearing
in her diary in 1893.&nbsp; She attended
public schools and graduated from Little Rock Academy High School in 1898.&nbsp; She attended the University of Chicago from
1898 to 1901 and later attended Columbia University and the University of
California at Berkley but never received a degree from any of them.&nbsp; The only university degree she received was
from Southern Methodist University, who awarded her an honorary doctorate of
letters in 1924.1</span></p>

<p><span>From 1925 to
1934, Baker devoted her life to writing and teaching, working in the English
department at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, known today as Stephen
F. Austin State University.&nbsp; She wrote
personal and historical essays, novels, nature poetry, and short stories.&nbsp; Her writings have appeared in <i>Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Poetry: A
Magazine of Verse, and the Yale Review </i>under the pen name of Charlotte
Wilson. In 1931, a volume of her poems, <i>Dreamers
on Horseback, </i>was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.&nbsp;2</span></p>

<p><span>By the time
of her poems’ nomination, she had begun to focus on prose writing.&nbsp; In 1925 she wrote <i>The Texas Flag Primer </i>which was a Texas history book for children
that was later adopted by the Texas public school system.&nbsp; She published a second reader for school
children, <i>Two Little Texans, </i>in 1932.
Her most notable work was a novel published in 1937, <i>Family Style, </i>which is a fictional account of the effects of sudden
wealth set against the backdrop of the East Texas oil boom.3</span></p>

<p><span>Known as one
of Texas’ most talented writers, Baker received the most recognition and honors
of any poet in Texas during the 20th century.&nbsp; The recognition she received from the <i>Yale Review </i>and Yale University Press
established her reputation across the state and the nation.&nbsp; She died on November 9, 1960 and is buried in
Nacodoches, Texas.4</span></p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

In the early and mid-20th century, Nacodoches was the home of notable poet and writer Karle Wilson Baker.  Karle first published in 1903 with a poem in Harper’s magazine.  In the 1910s she became the most frequently published poet in the Yale Review.  In 1924, the Dallas News labeled her “The Poet of Quiet Things” and Southern Methodist University honored her with an honorary doctorate of letters.  Her 1931 collection of poems was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.  Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches is the home of her historical marker, placed by the Texas State Historical Commission in 2007.

Karle Wilson Baker Historical Marker

<p><span>Margie Elizabeth Neal was born on April 20, 1875, near
Clayton, Texas and was the second of four children born to William Lafayette
and Martha Neal.&nbsp; She attended Sam
Houston State Teachers College but never graduated.&nbsp; She spent a short time teaching in Panola
County and in Fort Worth before returning to Carthage in 1903.&nbsp; Her return to Carthage was less about disappointment
in her teaching career and more about the failing health of her mother.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Before she returned to Carthage, her father had
purchased the <i>Texas Mule</i>, a weekly
newspaper.&nbsp; She became the editor and
publisher of the newspaper and almost immediately changed its name to the <i>East Texas Register.&nbsp; </i>She continued publishing the paper until
she sold it in 1911.&nbsp; She was one of the
first women in Texas to publish a newspaper and used it as a platform to
support women’s suffrage and the Democratic Party.<sup>2</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Neal was active in civic affairs early on in her
career.&nbsp; In 1921 she became the first
woman on the Board of Regents for State Teachers Colleges and remained in this
position until 1927.&nbsp; She was her
district’s chairman in the fight for women’s suffrage and was the first woman
to register to vote in Panola County.&nbsp; She
was the first woman on the State Democratic Executive Committee and was a
delegate to the 1920 Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco,
California.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Neal was elected from Panola County as a Texas State
Senator in 1926 and went on to serve four consecutive terms.&nbsp; Her passion for education and the legislature’s
inability to raise academic standards were what led her to run for the
seat.&nbsp; She introduced a bill that
established the State Board of Education and sponsored a bill that introduced
physical education classes into the public school system.&nbsp; She also actively supported a bill that made
the study of state and national constitutions a mandatory part of the
curriculum, but this bill never passed.&nbsp;
She was an essential part of legislation that appropriated the largest
amount of funding (at that time) for rural education in Texas, and helped
support legislation for the rehabilitation of the handicapped.<sup>4</sup></span></p>

<p><span>In 1935 she continued her career in public affairs,
traveling to Washington D.C. to work with the National Recovery Administration
and the Social Security Administration.&nbsp; She
was eventually able to transfer back to her home state, working in Dallas and
San Antonio for the Manpower Commission as a community facilities analyst.&nbsp; She resigned from this position and returned
to her hometown of Carthage, where she continued to participate in local affairs
for many years.<sup>5</sup></span></p>

<p><span>On June 15, 1952, a celebration was held in her honor
in Carthage.&nbsp; Among the speakers at the
event were Lyndon Baines Johnson (future President of the United States) and
Texas Governor Allan Shivers.&nbsp; Neal died
in Carthage in 1971 and is buried at the Oddfellows Cemetery there.&nbsp; A historical marker was placed on the town square
in 1988 honoring her life and works.<sup>6</sup></span></p><div><div>

</div>

</div>

Margie Neal began her career as a teacher in 1893.  In 1904 she became editor and owner of the East Texas Register newspaper and was also a leader of the women’s suffrage movement in Texas.  She was the first woman appointed to the State Normal School Board of Regents in 1921.  Five years later she made history as the first woman elected to the Texas State Senate.  She served in several federal positions in Washington, D.C. before returning to Texas in 1945.  There she was active in civic affairs until her death in 1971.  A historical marker was placed in her honor in Carthage, Texas in 1988.

Margie Neal Historical Marker

<p>Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas as the tenth of thirteen children born to tenant farmers. Coleman's father was part Cherokee and her mother was African American. The family moved to Waxahachie, Texas when she was two years old and she remained there until she was twenty-three.&nbsp;</p><p>Bessie’s early childhood was a happy one, spent playing outside, helping care for her younger siblings, and helping her mother in the garden. She began school at the age of six and walked four miles each day to the all-Black school she attended. Coleman established herself early as an outstanding mathematics student.</p>

<p>In 1901, the Coleman family life took a dramatic turn when George Coleman decided to return to Oklahoma because he was frustrated with the racial barriers that still existed in Texas. George Coleman attempted to convince his wife and children to come with him, but Coleman's mother Susan was determined to stay and George left alone. Susan Coleman, the matriarch of the family, was left behind with four girls under the age of ten to care for. She immediately found work as a cook and housekeeper in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Elwin Jones.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Even while becoming a caretaker of her home and younger siblings while her mother was away at work, Bessie managed to complete all eight years of her schooling and yearned for more.&nbsp; Bessie saved all the money she could and enrolled in the Colored Agriculture and Normal University. Unfortunately, she was only able to complete one term before her money ran out. In 1915, at the age of 23, she set out for Chicago to live with her brother while trying to find work.</p>

<p><span>After moving to Chicago, Bessie became a manicurist working at a local salon in one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods. While working at the salon she heard stories from pilots returning from World War I and became fascinated with the art of flying. She heard through her friend, Robert S. Abbott, (founder and editor of the <i>Chicago Defender </i>newspaper) that Europe had a more accepting attitude of women and people of color.&nbsp; She immediately began learning French and saved money to go to Paris where she hoped to obtain flight lessons. Coleman earned her license on June 15, 1921, from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.</span></p>

<p>When Bessie returned to the United States to pursue her new career, she knew that in order to make an amount of money that would allow her to support herself, she must cultivate an image and attract an audience. She created an exciting image of herself that included wearing a military type uniform. Her first appearance at an air show was in New York City in September 1922. The show, which was sponsored by Bessie’s previously mentioned friend Robert Abbott, billed her as “the world’s greatest woman flyer."&nbsp; Coleman continued to book air shows throughout the country, including a show in Houston on June 19, 1925, that brought her back to Texas for the first time since she had left ten years earlier.</p>

<p>In the time between her flying debut in New York City in 1922 and her Texas debut in 1925, Bessie had never given up hope of owning her own plane and opening her own aviation school for African Americans. While performing a show in Dallas, she put a down payment on a plane from the Curtiss Southwestern Airplane and Motor Company.&nbsp; She then briefly returned to Chicago, did a lecture tour through Florida, and then opened a beauty shop there to raise funds quicker for her aviation school. With the help of a patron and wealthy businessman, she was able to make her final payment on her plane in Dallas and arranged to have it sent to Florida for her next engagement.</p>

<p>In April 1926, Coleman's plane arrived in Jacksonville and she and her mechanic took the plane on a test flight on the evening of April 30th. The mechanic was piloting from the front seat when he lost control of the plane and Bessie fell over a mile to her death. The mechanic was never able to regain control and lost his life as well when it crashed into the ground below.</p>

<p>Five thousand people attended a service in Florida before her body was taken by train to Chicago where an estimated 10,000 people past her coffin to pay their last respects. Her dream of a flying school became a reality when William Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles, California in 1929. However, few people in Atlanta Texas know of Bessie Coleman today despite the dedication of this marker.</p><div><div>

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Bessie Coleman was the tenth of thirteen children born to tenant farmers in Atlanta, Texas.  She followed her brothers to Chicago in 1915 when she was twenty-three years old and developed a love for flying. Coleman could find no one in the United States that was willing to teach an African American woman how to fly at that time, so she went to France and obtained her international flying license in 1921. Upon her return to the United States, she soon earned a reputation as an exceptional pilot by performing at air shows. Bessie Coleman died in an airplane accident in Jacksonville, Florida in 1926 and is buried near Chicago.  This historical marker placed by the Texas Historical Commission commemorates her life and contribution to Texas Women’s History.

Bessie Coleman Historical Marker

<p><span>Ima Hogg was
born on July 10, 1882 in Mineola, Texas.&nbsp;
Ima was named for the heroine of a Civil War poem written by her uncle
Thomas Elisha and went by the name Miss Ima for most of her life.&nbsp; When she was eight years old her father,
James Stephen Hogg, was elected governor of Texas and they moved to
Austin.&nbsp; In 1899, she began attending
school at the University of Texas until 1901 when she traveled to New York to
begin studying music.&nbsp; She returned to
Texas in 1909 after studying abroad in Berlin and Vienna and began teaching
piano to a select group of pupils.&nbsp; She
helped found the Houston Symphony Orchestra, which played its first concert in
June of 1913.&nbsp; She served as the first
Vice President of the Houston Symphony Society and became President in 1917.<sup>1</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Hogg
suffered from severe mental illness and in 1918 fell ill, more than likely from
severe depression.&nbsp; She consulted with a
doctor in Philadelphia who specialized in mental illness and nervous
disorders.&nbsp; She was hospitalized for a
full year and spent another three years convalescing.&nbsp; She had fully recovered by 1923 but had given
up her previous dream of becoming a professional concert pianist because of
prolonged times of weakness due to her illness.<sup>2</sup></span></p>

<p><span>Also in 1918,
oil was found on the family’s plantation.&nbsp;
The oil income provided $225,000 a month that was shared among the four
Hogg children.&nbsp; All of the children did
not believe that the money was rightfully theirs because it had come from the
land naturally and not because of any hard work they had done, so they were
determined to use it for the good of Texas and its residents.&nbsp; In 1929, Miss Ima founded the Houston Child
Guidance Center to provide counseling for mentally ill children and their
families.&nbsp; Miss Ima was convinced that if
children’s emotional issues could be treated then more serious mental issues
could be prevented in adults.<sup>3</sup></span></p>

<p><span>In the 1950s
Miss Ima restored the Hogg family home at Varner Plantation near West Columbia
and presented it to the state of Texas.&nbsp;
In the 1960s she restored the Winedale Inn, a nineteenth century
stagecoach stop in Round Top, which she gave to the University of Texas and it now
serves as a center for the study of Texas history.&nbsp; She also restored her parents’ home in
Quitman, Texas and in 1969 the town of Quitman established the Ima Hogg Museum
in her honor.4</span></p>

<p><span>At the age
of ninety-three, Miss Ima died of complications that were the result of a
traffic accident while vacationing in London.&nbsp;
She was buried on August 23, 1975 in the Hogg family plot in Oakwood
Cemetery in Austin, Texas.&nbsp; The Ima Hogg
Foundation, which she had established in 1964, was the major benefactor of her
will and continues to do her work of philanthropy today.<sup>5</sup></span></p>

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Ima Hogg, known as “The First Lady of Texas”, was an American philanthropist and a collector of the arts.  She was an avid art collector and owned pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and others which she donated to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  The discovery of oil on her family’s plantation allowed her to pursue philanthropy that largely benefited the people of Texas.  She founded the Houston Child Guidance Center, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Ima Hogg Foundation which still exists today and carries on her philanthropic work.  The site of her birthplace in Mineola, Texas is marked with a Texas Historical Commission subject marker.

Women's History of Texas Heritage Trail

Stinson Airport

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