Bette Nesmith Graham facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bette Nesmith Graham
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Graham with son Michael Nesmith
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| Born |
Bette Clair McMurray
March 23, 1924 Dallas, Texas, U.S.
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| Died | May 12, 1980 (aged 56) Richardson, Texas, U.S.
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| Known for | Invention of Liquid Paper |
| Spouse(s) |
Warren Nesmith
(m. 1942–1946)Robert Graham
(m. 1962–1975) |
| Children | 1, son Michael Nesmith |
Bette Nesmith Graham (born March 23, 1924 – died May 12, 1980) was an American inventor, businesswoman, and generous giver from Texas. In the 1950s, while working as a secretary, she created the famous correction fluid called Liquid Paper. Graham started the Liquid Paper Company in 1958. She built it into a very successful business that made millions of dollars and reached customers all over the world. In 1979, she sold her company to Gillette Corporation. She was also the mother of the musician Michael Nesmith.
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Bette Nesmith Graham's Early Life and Career
Bette Clair McMurry was born in Dallas, Texas, on March 23, 1924. Her father sold vehicles, and her mother enjoyed art. Bette's sister, Yvonne, described her as a very determined person. At 17, Bette left Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio. She looked for jobs as a secretary, even though she didn't know how to type yet. She was hired and then sent to a secretarial school to learn the skills she needed.
In 1942, Bette married her high school boyfriend, Warren Nesmith. While he was away during World War II, she kept working as a secretary. She also took night classes to get her high school equivalency diploma. On December 30, 1942, her son, Michael Nesmith, was born. Michael later became a musician and was the guitarist for the famous band The Monkees. Bette divorced Warren Nesmith in 1946. After that, she spent several years working in different secretarial and design jobs. She raised her son by herself after her divorce.
The Invention of Liquid Paper
In 1951, Bette McMurry was a top secretary for the head of Texas Bank and Trust. She used an IBM electric typewriter, which made it hard to correct mistakes. Bette was frustrated that one small error meant she had to retype an entire page. To earn extra money, she painted holiday decorations on the bank's windows. The idea of painting over mistakes to fix them gave her an idea for her typing errors.
Bette mixed white, water-based paint to match the color of her office paper. She then used a small brush to paint over her typing errors. This method successfully hid her mistakes. She said, "I tried to keep it a secret," and managed to do so for five years. About a dozen of her colleagues asked Bette for her special product. So, she created a label and called it "Mistake Out." She continued to improve the product at her North Dallas home. She mixed it in a kitchen blender and poured it into empty nail polish bottles, ketchup bottles, and mustard bottles. In 1956, she officially started the Mistake Out Company. Bette hired her son and his friends to help put the product into bottles in her garage, paying them $1 an hour.
Bette worked on new ways to make the correction fluid dry faster and have better brushes. In 1957, she sold about 100 bottles a month. Sales grew five times when her product was featured in The Office magazine. This led to a big order from General Electric. In 1958, Bette lost her secretarial job after accidentally signing a letter with her company's name, "The Mistake Out Company." After losing her job, Bette focused on her correction fluid business full-time. That same year, she changed her business name to the Liquid Paper Company. She also applied for official protection for her invention with a patent and trademark. Bette McMurry was the leader of her company.
In 1962, Bette McMurry married Robert Graham. He joined her in running Liquid Paper as it grew. In 1964, the company's main office moved to a small shed. By 1965, it moved to a single-family home. By 1968, the company had become a huge organization, starting to build a large office and factory in Dallas, Texas. Liquid Paper grew worldwide, opening offices and factories in Canada, England, Belgium, and Australia. Bette Graham still owned 49% of the company. By 1975, Liquid Paper was making 25 million bottles a year. It was a big part of a huge market, even with other products like Wite-Out trying to compete. The company's success, achieved without needing money from outside investors, made Graham very rich.
Bette Graham grew up Baptist and later became a Christian Scientist in 1942. Her faith influenced her special company rules, which talked about her beliefs, how decisions were made, and how important product quality was. Graham believed that women brought a caring and people-focused way of thinking to the business world. At the Liquid Paper headquarters, she created a green area with a fish pond, a library for employees, and a place for children to stay while their parents worked. Liquid Paper offered many benefits for employees, like a retirement plan, classes to keep learning, and a credit union owned by the employees.
Graham had a difficult divorce from Robert Graham in 1975. Robert Graham also tried to remove her from the company. For a while, she couldn't even go to the company's offices. However, even with her health getting worse, Graham managed to get control of her company back. She sold Liquid Paper to Gillette Corporation in 1979 for a large sum of money, reportedly over $47.5 million. She passed away the following year.
Bette Nesmith Graham's Philanthropy
Bette Graham created two foundations: the Gihon Foundation and the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation. The Gihon Foundation gave money to help women in the arts. The Bette Clair McMurray Foundation did the same for women in business.
A part of Graham's wealth helped fund the Gihon Foundation. This foundation created the Council on Ideas, a group that thought about new ideas and had a special center for meetings north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Council on Ideas was active from 1990 to 2000. Another part of Graham's wealth funded the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation. This foundation supports programs like the "Texas Women, A Celebration of History" exhibit, career help for single mothers, safe places and support for women who needed it, and college scholarships for older women.
The Legacy of Bette Nesmith Graham
On May 12, 1980, Bette Nesmith Graham passed away at the age of 56 from problems caused by a stroke. Graham's only son, the musician Michael Nesmith, inherited a large part of his mother's wealth, over $50 million. In 2018, The New York Times later published a special article about her life as part of its "Overlooked No More" series, recognizing her important contributions.
See also
In Spanish: Bette Nesmith Graham para niños
