Bette Nesmith Graham
Bette Nesmith Graham | |
|---|---|
 Bette Nesmith Graham, with sonMichael | |
| Born | Bette Clair McMurray March 23, 1924 Dallas, Texas,U.S. |
| Died | May 12, 1980(aged 56) Richardson, Texas,U.S. |
| Education | High school graduate |
| Known for | Invention ofLiquid Paper |
| Spouses | Warren Audrey Nesmith (1919-1984)
(m.1942–1946)Robert Graham (m.1962–1975) |
| Children | Michael Nesmith |
| Parent(s) | Jesse McMurray Christine Duval McMurray |
Bette Nesmith Graham(March 23, 1924 – May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and theinventorof the correction fluidLiquid Paper.She was the mother of musician and producerMichael NesmithofThe Monkees.[1]
Biography
[edit]Born in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, Bette Graham dropped out of Alamo Heights High School inSan Antonioat the age of seventeen and went to secretarial school. By 1951, she had worked her way up to the position of executive secretary for W. W. Overton, the Chairman of the Board of theTexas Bank and Trust.It was at this time that Graham and her colleagues at the bank began experiencing trouble with the newIBMelectric typewriters.Tired of having to retype entire pages because of one small error, Graham determined to find a more efficient alternative. Her frustration would lead to her becoming one of the most famous women inventors of the 20th century.
Career
[edit]The impetus for Graham's breakthrough came as she observed painters decorating the bank windows for the holidays. Rather than remove their mistakes entirely, the painters simply covered any imperfections with an additional layer. The quick-thinking Graham mimicked their technique by using awhite,water-basedtemperapaintto cover her typing errors.
When the other secretaries realized how well the invention worked, they flooded Graham with requests for their own supplies. The inventor sold her first batch of "Mistake Out" in 1956, and soon she was working full-time to produce and bottle it from her North Dallas home. Her son Michael – who would later achieve fame as a member of the pop groupThe Monkees– and his friends helped to fill the growing number of orders for Mistake Out.
Graham continued experimenting with the makeup of the substance until she achieved the perfect combination of paint and several other chemicals. The refined product was renamed "Liquid Paper" in 1958 and, amid soaring demand, Graham applied for a patent and a trademark that same year.
Graham's Liquid Paper Company experienced tremendous growth over the next decade. By 1967, the company had its own corporate headquarters and automated production plant, and sales were in excess of one million units per year. In 1975, Graham moved operations into a 35,000-sq. ft. international Liquid Paper headquarters building in Dallas. Eventually, she opted to sell the company toGillette Corporationfor over $47.5 million in 1979. Following this success and massive growth in wealth, Graham would go on to establish two foundations, the Gihon Foundation, which gave grants and financial support to promote women in the arts, and the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation, which did the same for women in business. She died shortly afterward on May 12, 1980, due to complications of astroke.She left her fortune to her son, who took over her foundations that empower striving women.
Management style
[edit]From the start, Graham ran her company with a unique combination of spirituality, egalitarianism, and pragmatism. Raised a Baptist, Graham converted toChristian Sciencein 1942, and this faith inspired the development of her corporate "Statement of Policy". Part code of ethics, part business philosophy, it covered everything from her belief in a "Supreme Being" to a focus on decentralized decision making and an emphasis on product quality over the pursuit of profit. She also believed that women could bring a more nurturing and humanistic quality to the male world of business, and provided a greenbelt with a fish pond, an employee library, and a childcare center in her new company headquarters in 1975.[2]
Legacy
[edit]Her only son, musicianMichael Nesmith,inherited half of his mother's estate of over $50 million.[3]A portion financed theGihon Foundationwhich established theCouncil on Ideas,athink tankwith a retreat center located north ofSanta Fe, New Mexico,active from 1990 to 2000 and devoted to exploring world problems.[4]Additionally, a portion of Graham's estate financed the Betty Clair McMurray Foundation, which focuses on supporting projects such as the exhibit "Texas Women, A Celebration of History," career guidance for unwed mothers, shelter and counseling for battered women, and college scholarships for mature women.[5]As part of its effort to acknowledge prominent people who had been previously overlooked, in 2018The New York Timespublished a belated obituary for her.[6]
References
[edit]- ^"Bette Nesmith Graham".Famous Women Inventors.RetrievedMarch 18,2010.
- ^James, Edward T., ed. (2004).Notable American Women.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 244.ISBN9780674014886.
- ^Hollander, Nicole (February 14, 1988)."From The Folks Who Gave You Liquid Paper".The New York Times.RetrievedMarch 18,2010.
- ^"The Gihon Foundation".RetrievedDecember 11,2010.
- ^Jones, Nancy."Graham, Bette Clair McMurray (1924–1980)".Texas State Historical Association.RetrievedSeptember 30,2020.
- ^"Overlooked No More: Bette Nesmith Graham, Who Invented Liquid Paper".The New York Times.RetrievedJuly 13,2018.
Further reading
[edit]- Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek (2002).Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN0-471-02334-5.
- "Historical Inventors".LEMELSON-MIT.Archived fromthe originalon August 3, 2019.RetrievedMarch 22,2019.
External links
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