List_of_First_Ladies_and_Gentlemen_of_Texas

First ladies and gentlemen of Texas

First ladies and gentlemen of Texas

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The first ladies and gentlemen of Texas, both under the Republic of Texas and the State of Texas, have been a wide spectrum of personalities and abilities. The position of first spouse has been defined by individual achievements and perspectives of official spouses for over 75 years. Some enjoyed their positions and seized the opportunity to help shape the state's history. Others were there reluctantly.

Texas governors mansion

Margaret Lea Houston can arguably be called the original first lady of Texas. Hannah Estey Burnet's husband David G. Burnet was ad interim Republic president before Sam Houston became the official first president. During Houston's first term, he was in the process of obtaining a divorce from Eliza Allen, his estranged wife in Tennessee.[1] Houston's 1838-41 successor Mirabeau B. Lamar was a widower during his term in office.[2]

Margaret campaigned with her new husband when Houston ran for a second term as president, and rode in the presidential parade, in spite of her dislike of politics. There was no government housing for the family of the president of the Republic. The Houstons divided their time among properties they owned. No role model existed for Margaret. She saw herself not as a political wife, but as a homebody who was responsible for the health, welfare and religious education of her husband and her children. She became a virtual recluse when Sam Houston was elected Governor of Texas and refused any visitors inside the mansion except her own relatives.[3] Margaret Lea Houston's great-great granddaughter Jean Houston Baldwin Daniel also served as First Lady of Texas 1957–1963.

Frances Cox Henderson, wife of the state's first governor James Pinckney Henderson, was an outgoing supporter of women's suffrage, and a multi-linguist who had been a book translator before she met Henderson.[4]

The only first gentleman the state has had was James E. Ferguson, who first served as governor. He was impeached on charges of misapplication of public funds, and failing to respect and enforce the banking laws of the state and resigned from office in 1917.[5] When his wife Miriam A. Ferguson won two non-consecutive terms as governor, James Ferguson became the state's only first gentleman.[6]

Mildred Paxton Moody had been a newspaper columnist and a professor at Hardin-Simmons University before she married Dan Moody. She used her influence as a former first lady to get the Texas State Legislature to create the Board of Mansion Supervisors to oversee the finances of maintaining the official residence.[7] Rita Crocker Clements not only restored the Governor's Mansion, but also had been a mover and shaker in politics decades before she married Bill Clements.[8] Former first lady Anita Thigpen Perry has a background in nursing and two nursing educational endowments bear her name.

Republic of Texas

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State of Texas

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Notes

Footnotes

  1. [F 1]
    Lamar was widowed in 1830 and did not remarry until 1851.[11]
  2. [F 2]
    Elisha and Lucadia Pease were the first occupants of the official Governor's Mansion.[17]
  3. [F 3]
    Fay died January 1942[44]
  4. [F 4]
    Richards was divorced in 1984.[52]

Citations

  1. [1]
    "Sam Houston and Eliza Allen: "Ten Thousand Imputed Slanders"". Tennessee Historical Society. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Giants of Texas History". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  3. [3]
    Seale, William (1992) [1970]. Sam Houston's Wife: A Biography of Margaret Lea Houston. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 64, 65 194, 195. ISBN 978-0806124360.
  4. [4]
    Farrell, Mary D. "France Cox Henderson". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  5. [5]
    "Pa Ferguson". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  6. [6]
    "Miriam A. Ferguson". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  7. [7]
    McQueary, Carl (2003). Dining at the Governor's Mansion. Texas A & M University Press. pp. 131, 132, 134. ISBN 978-1-58544-254-6.
  8. [8]
    "Rita Crocker Clements Personal Papers". TAMU. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  9. [9]
    "Hannah Este Burnet". Dress Collection. Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  10. [10]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; Malone, Anne Righton (Winter 1995). "Reviewed Works: Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston by Madge Thornall Roberts; The Raven's Bride: A Novel of Eliza Alien and Sam Houston by Elizabeth Crook". Western American Literature. 29 (4). University of Nebraska Press: 370–371. doi:10.1353/wal.1995.0038. JSTOR 43021400. S2CID 166095573.
  11. [11]
    Gambrell, Herbert. "Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  12. [12]
    "Mary (Mrs. Anson) Jones Letters". Texas Archival Resources Online. University of Houston. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  13. [13]
    Biles (2014), pp. 85–88
  14. [14]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; Vincent, Louella Styles (January 1917). "Governor George Thomas Wood". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 20 (3). Texas State Historical Association: 269–276. JSTOR 30234713.
  15. [15]
    Hooker, Anne W. "Peter Hansborough Bell". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  16. [16]
    Kemp, L. W. "James W. Henderson". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  17. [17]
    "Lucadia Christiana Niles Pease". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.Smyrl, Vivian Elizabeth. "Governor's Mansion". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 11 March 2012.; Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481
  18. [18]
    Harper Jr., Chris. "Hardin Richard Runnels". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  19. [19]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Martha Melissa Evans Clark". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  20. [20]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Adele Baron Lubbock". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  21. [21]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Sue Ellen Taylor Murrah". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  22. [22]
    "Fletcher Summerfield Stockdale". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  23. [23]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Mary Jane Bowen Hamilton". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  24. [24]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Ann Rattan Throckmorton". Dress Collection. TWU. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  25. [25]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Ann Davis Gown". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  26. [26]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Mary Evans Horne Coke". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  27. [27]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Janie Roberts Hubbard". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  28. [28]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Frances Wickliffe Edwards Roberts". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  29. [29]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Anne Maria Penn Ireland". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  30. [30]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Elizabeth Dorothy Tinsley Ross". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  31. [31]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Sarah Ann Stinson Hogg". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  32. [32]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Sallie Harrison Culberson". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  33. [33]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Orline Walton Sayers". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  34. [34]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Sarah Beona Meng Lanham". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  35. [35]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Fannie Irene Bruner Campbell". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  36. [36]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Alice Fuller Murrell Colquitt". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  37. [37]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  38. [38]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Willie Chapman Cooper Hobby". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  39. [39]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Myrtle Mainer Neff". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  40. [40]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Mildred Paxton Moody". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  41. [41]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Maude Abbie Gage Sterling". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  42. [42]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Joe Betsy Miller Allred". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  43. [43]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Merle Estelle Butcher O'Daniel". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  44. [44]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Texas Governor Coke Stevenson". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 11 March 2012."Coke Stevenson". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  45. [45]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481
  46. [46]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Marialice Shary Shivers". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  47. [47]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Jean Houston Baldwin Daniel". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  48. [48]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Idanell Brill Connally". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  49. [49]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Ima Mae Smith Smith". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  50. [50]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Betty Jane Slaughter Briscoe". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  51. [51]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Linda Gale White". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  52. [52]
    "Ann Richards". Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  53. [53]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Laura Welch Bush, 1995–2000". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  54. [54]
    Alvarez, Plocheck (2011). p. 481; "Anita Perry, 2000 to 2015". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  55. [55]
    "Cecilia Abbot, 2015 to Present". Texas Woman's University. Retrieved January 9, 2016.

References

Further reading
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