The secretary who turned Liquid Paper into a multimillion-dollar She was left alone to take care of her only son, Michael singlehandedly. It is a tool, she said. I remember talking to her accountant, and he looked at me and said, You know, this company should never have existed. She called her vision the Statement of Policy. Tags: Suggested Posts Amy Adams Facts Kylie Jenner Facts Julia Roberts Facts Robin Williams Facts Zindine Zidane Facts Inventor. However, as an article from a July 1967 issue of Teen Life magazine told it, "When Davy applied for an immigration visa to America, he had to sign a form stating that he knew that after six months here, he would be eligible for the draft." This madcap movie was a colossal flop at the time, pocketing a mere $16,000 at the box office. By 1951, she had risen to the post of becoming an executive secretary, the top position available to ladies in the company at the time.After reworking and improving her invention, Bette Nesmith Graham invented liquid paper in December of 1951.Graham kept her white correction paint hidden for five years, improving it with the help of her son's chemistry instructor at Dallas' Thomas Jefferson High School.She started marketing her correction solution for the typewriter, Mistake Out, in the year 1956.She started the Liquid Paper Company in 1958. They include The Gihon Foundation, womens scholarships, and counseling. In that tone, she opted to paint an error instead of erasing it completely. Kidadl provides inspiration to entertain and educate your children. Today is National Administrative Professionals Day, commemorating the important work of executive assistants and office professionals, the tireless people who make sure the organizational trains run on time. Inspirational Women / By Kate Kelly The inventor of the correcting fluid Liquid Paper was a woman by the name of Bette Nesmith Graham (1924-1980). } The Kidadl Team is made up of people from different walks of life, from different families and backgrounds, each with unique experiences and nuggets of wisdom to share with you. This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. She married Warren Nesmith in 1941. University of North Texas Libraries Special Collection, These remarkable employee benefits were further memorialized in the 1980. , about three secretaries that took over their company. Born Bette Clair McMurray in Dallas in March 1924, she grew up in San Antonio. Currently, Bette Nesmith Graham is 98 years, 1 months and 24 days old. Unfortunately, they divorced in 1946 after Warren Nesmith came back home.Bette remarried Robert Graham in 1962. The carbon ribbons made these errors impossible to erase without leaving smudges all over the paper. Born Bette Clair McMurray in Dallas in March 1924, she grew up in San Antonio. Her name was Bette Nesmith later Bette Nesmith Graham a single mom who, in 1956, tried to find a simple way to make her life at work easier. This cookie is set by Hotjar. Fun facts: Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is not moss, nor fungus, nor lichen, nor from Spain. Old Bette . That was intentional. An artist never corrects by erasing but always paints over the error, she later recalled. More than400 young actors and musicians auditioned for the four roles. She was a tool-maker and highly motivated to help working women, said Michael Nesmith, her son. We're committed to your privacy. Davy Jones had to be written out of an episode so he could attend his sister's wedding. var cookiePair = cookieArr[i].split("="); The Hustle uses the information you provide to contact you about our relevant content and services. The Texas-born Graham married Warren Nesmith at 19 and worked as a secretary during the day while studying for her GED diploma at night. Can you recognize these stars on the cover of TV Guide in 1970? Its non-linear structure and surrealism would profoundly influence MTV videos. BETTE NESMITH GRAHAM Originally Bette Clair Mcmurray BIRTH Try again please.'); However, it was quite difficult to erase the ink in the case of any emerging mistakes. The Hustle uses the information you provide to contact you about our relevant content and services. A single inspiration led Graham to invent the typing correction fluid she came to call Liquid Paper. The day she came up with the idea for Liquid Paper, she used the blender in her kitchen to mix up the first. } 3. Biography - Brittany Tse - OSU Wordpress She has a sister named Yvonne as well. The numbers tell that story of measured growth, too. It was then that she opted to sell and make several bottles and in the process, she made tons of money. For a variety of reasons - technology changes, increased access to education or better professional opportunities - the profession is on the decline. In 1968, Nesmith Graham opened a new plant with 20 employees. error.innerHTML = error_message; She called her product Mistake Out.. It is used for authentication purposes, to keep the user logged in to their Twitter account. In 1968, she moved into her own plant and corporate headquarters in Dallas with automated operations and 19 employees. It was here that she went to work as a secretary in Texas. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It might be defined as one of the simplest discoveries on earth, but it carried a huge investment as time passed. 100% free. The introduction of liquid paper came to cover up the blunders that we usually make when writing or re-writing a book or paper. She could see women who were at the highest places as executive assistants, but they didnt have decision making power. It appears to be a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. Soon, all the secretaries in the building were asking for some, too. She took the paint with her to the office which made her work easier than usual. The True Story of the Dallas Secretary Who Invented Liquid Paper Robert Swenson. By 1967, Liquid Paper had grown into a million-dollar business. Bette Nesmith Graham was born on 23 March 1924 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Bette Nesmith Graham is no longer in the world, and hence her annual income can not be ascertained. creative tips and more. Bette Claire McMurray Nesmith Graham (1924-1980) - Find a Grave For a variety of reasons - technology changes, increased access to education or better professional opportunities - the profession is on. setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-e', 'e', ''); That rankled her to no end, Nesmith said to me over the phone.
Entrepreneur Bette Nesmith Graham were born on Sunday, in a leap year, birthstone is Aquamarine, the seaon was Spring in the Chinese year of Rat, it is 77 days until Bette Nesmith Graham next birthday. initCaptchaFormV2(); Please try again! Used to store interaction and conversion data for campaigns in conjunction with Revenue Attribution. Most easily identified by his trademark blue wool hat with pompom, Nesmith fashioned a diversified career within music and also in film. The rival Wite-Out would come along in 1966 just like the Monkees. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/liquid-paper-bette-nesmith-graham-1992092. Archival materials are from the University of North Texas Special Collection, with special thanks to Morgan Davis Gieringer and her staff. From Rolling Stone: His life changed forever in 1980 when. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Her son performed with Davy Jones. She found employment in 1951 as an executive secretary for the Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas. She later died shortly after on May 12, 1980 due to complications of a stroke. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. A woman using an electric typewriter in the 1950s (Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images). During that time, I often became discouraged, she told the magazine Texas Woman in 1979. Her invention continues to be used everyday by secretaries and other people in the office and wherever typewriters are used. This cookie is set by Hotjar. But it came down to inches. var captchaVersion = document.createElement('input'); I wonder if we will have the courage to fully implement the type of ethical business practices she made real, some 40 years ago. $('input.hp_ts').val(hp_ts); Used To facilitate data center selection. } Prior to being bought by Gillette in 1979 for $48.5 million (roughly $190 million in 2020), LPC exported their products to 31 countries and employed some 300 people, according to their internal newsletter. if (utmName == 'ref') { Bette was passionate about painting and sculpting, if not particularly skilled. The new machines did make typing easier, but their carbon-film ribbons made it impossible to correct mistakes neatly with a pencil eraser. National Administrative Professionals Day. Soon the other secretaries wanted their own supply, and she found herself staying up late, filling bottles in her kitchen. Read more on Wikipedia. The _omappvp cookie is set to distinguish new and returning users and is used in conjunction with _omappvs cookie. And she did it all during a time when women were discouraged from pursuing business ventures. In the mid of 1979, Bette Graham decided to sell her company to Gillette Corporation for $50 million. This cookie is set by LiveIntent. for(var i = 0; i < cookieArr.length; i++) { Get the Hustles 5-minute weekday roundup that keeps you hip to happenings in tech, business, and internet things. In a time when corporations didnt offer much in the way of employee benefits, Liquid Paper was a highly progressive firm. Bridges. The quick-thinking Graham mimicked their technique by using a white, water-based tempera paint to cover her typing errors. A technological advancement in typewriters from fabric to carbon ribbons and a more sensitive keypad made errors more common and more difficult to correct: erasers that had worked before now smeared the carbon across the paper.
Graham's readers replied with a slew of (non-sinister) uses when computer-generated printing isn't involved: correcting posters, forms, crossword puzzles or Sudoku, file folder tabs, and calendars. function initForm() { By 1967, Liquid Paper was a million-dollar enterprise. She had mixed it in her kitchen blender and poured it into nail polish containers, then hid it in her desk, furtively applying it only when needed to avoid the scrutiny of a disapproving boss. It has grown by increasing productivity and by stretching capabilities to meet the demand, she said. For a long time, you dont see much happening, but all the time the plant is developing a stronger root system that reaches out to farther places.. The substance, Liquid Paper, the correction fluid relieves writers of all stripes from the pressure of perfection. } The rival Wite-Out would come along in 1966 just like the Monkees. She was the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith of The Monkees.[1]. Pick: Do you consider these musicians one-hit wonders? This cookie is set by Microsoft Advertising. She described herself as a "feminist who wants freedom for myself and everybody else.". Her mother operated a knitting store, and his father worked as a manager in an automotive supply firm. LPC also developed an expanded set of employee benefits that were highly uncommon for the time. Sales grew in tandem with exposure. } In 1975 they went through an acrimonious divorce. Michael Nesmith missed three shoots due to a tonsillectomy, the birth of his son Jonathan and a family trip to Texas. var wrappingDiv = document.getElementById('email-submission'); This structure was a part of LPCs culture of high ethical standards, which Bette developed in 1968. Provided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services. To learn more about the different cookies we're using, check out our. Bette Nesmith Graham was born March 23rd, 1924 ("Bette Nesmith Graham: Liquid Paper Inventor," n.d.). How This Former Secretary Built A Multimillion-Dollar - Forbes She later married Robert Graham, but they filed for divorce in 1975 and separated in 1979.Bette Nesmith Graham filled a bottle with water-based paint tinted to match the paper she was using and headed to the workplace with her watercolor brush. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. Details for: Women inventors & their discoveries / J 920 Washoe (2021, September 1). She was previously married to Robert Graham and Warren Audrey Nesmith. var onloadCallback = function() { It is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts. Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 - May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of white-out. Want more stories on forgotten inventors? var existingVal = el.getAttribute("value"); setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-o', 'o', ''); Bellis, Mary. "Biography of Bette Nesmith Graham, Inventor of Liquid Paper." In 1962, Graham married a frozen-food salesman, Robert Graham, who took an increasingly active role in the company, including a seat on the board. Bette attended the Alamo Heights School in San Antonio, Texas until she was 17, at which point she left school to marry her childhood sweetheart and soldier Warren Nesmith. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. She was a tool-maker and highly motivated to help working women, said. After her death, a share of her fortune went to the Gihon Foundation, which she founded in 1978 and is dedicated to researching global issues, and the Betty Clair McMurray Foundation, which supports women's projects. Sets a unique ID for the visitor that allows third-party advertisers to target the visitor with relevant advertisements. Nesmith also auditioned and was considered too tall. The invention of the new typewriting machines gave someone a chance to type with extreme speed. } var wrappingDivs = document.getElementsByClassName('email-submission'); Jones, having just wrapped the first season of The Monkees, fasted so he would become frail and fail the physical. In 1975, she moved Liquid Paper into a 35k-square-foot automated facility in Dallas that pumped out 25m bottles/year. Her mother, Christine Duval, was an artist and a businesswoman who opened her own knitting store and taught Bette oil painting. LPCs sales zenith was an increase by 137% in 1967. But as her operation took off, the people closest to her tried to take advantage of her success. var hp_ts = 0; Little did she know her frustration would lead to her becoming one of the most famous women inventors of the 20th century. I think she might have gotten a $600 loan from a family member at some point. To meet demand, she turned her garage into a mini packing plant, paying her son and his friends $1/hour to fill the little glass bottles and affix them with handwritten labels.
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LPC established an employee-owned credit union and a retirement program that contributed 15% into the fund, where the employee could contribute up to an additional 15% of their pre-tax earnings. } It contains the domain, utk, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session). This cookie is set by Google and is used to distinguish users. She and her husband divorced after World War II, leaving . if(hp_ts < 3 && hp_try < 1) { That plan hinged on By many counts, the ski industry is booming. She would sell the company for $47.5 million in 1979 and donate millions to charity six months before she died at 56. Over the next twenty five years, Bette and others grew the small start-up through traditional sales to distributors and promotion within the office product industry. window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { That same year, she divorced Robert Graham. LPC also boasted full implementation of affirmative action polices in the late 1970s with a racially integrated staff. With him, she had a son Michael Nesmith.Michael Nesmith is a musician and producer in his own right. }; Kidadl cannot accept liability for the execution of these ideas, and parental supervision is advised at all times, as safety is paramount. Used to detect the first pageview session of a user. In the mid-70s, well before Zappos adopted a. , Bette was innovating with organizational structure. There's Snow on Them Thar Hills - Healdsburg Tribune Her mother owned a knitting store and taught Bette how to paint; her father worked at an auto parts store. Bette Nesmith Graham: Innovator - Legacy.com e.preventDefault();
The secretary that invented this product was, by many accounts, a bad typist but an extraordinary entrepreneur. Here are a handful of fun facts to celebrate half a century of the Monkees. Born: 23-Mar-1924 Birthplace: Corpus Christi, TX Died: 12-May-1980 Location of death: Fort Worth, TX Cause of death: unspecified Gender: Female Religion: Christian Science Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Inventor, Business Nationality: United States Executive summary: Correction fluid Bette Clair McMurray was a . So, in 1979, the inventor of Liquid Paper sold the company to Gillette for $47.5 million, plus a deal for royalties. At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world. She was a single mom from Texas who had a brilliant idea while working a 9-to-5 job as a secretary. By 1975, the company produced 25 million liquid paper bottles per year. Read further to know more about her early and later success. This cookie is set by Hotjar. After few trials and fails, Bette tried an odorless and colorless paint with a watercolor brush. Graham found a green bottle at home, wrote "Mistake Out" on a label, and gave it to her friend. Interested? By 1951, she had worked her way up to the position of executive secretary for W.W. Overton, the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Bank and Trust. He changed his name to avoid confusion with the Monkees star, and picked Bowie based on frontiersman Jim Bowie and his eponymous knife. LPC had arranged for Liquid Paper to have product placement in the movie and also suggested that they mention these employee programs in the movie to promote better business practice. By 1976, her little business had grown into the Liquid Paper Corporation, producing 25 million bottles each year and spending $1 million per year on advertising. Why? Do Not Sell My Information - CA Residents. That secretary was Elizabeth Clair McMurray Nesmith Graham, the inventor of Liquid Paper and founder and CEO of the Liquid Paper Corporation. Bette Clair McMurray was born in Dallas on March 23, 1924. Her two foundations supported several ways to help women find new ways to earn a living, especially unwed mothers.