Bette Nesmith Graham Entrepreneur #83111 Most Popular Boost Birthday March 23, 1924 Birthplace Dallas , TX DEATH DATE May 12, 1980 ( age 56 ) Birth Sign Aries About Inventor of Liquid Paper who gave countless students a quick way to correct writing mistakes. The tenacious woman managed to hold on to 49% of the company. 400 young actors and musicians auditioned, the potential casting of Arthur Fonzarelli, 11 incredibly cool facts about Burt Reynolds, 6 familiar characters who got their own ''spin-off babies'' cartoons, 12 Sally Field roles that range from iconic to obscure. Used to monitor the technical information and use of devices that connect to our website to protect it from malicious traffic. In her Richardson garage, Nesmith. It is a tool, she said. Today, Liquid Paper is still in production and is owned by Newell Brands a conglomerate that owns Rubbermaid, Sharpie, and Elmers glue. Bette Nesmith Graham. for(var i = 0; i < cookieArr.length; i++) { Well send you tons of inspiration to help you find a hidden gem in your local area or plan a big day out. Grahams impact on her revolutionary invention, Liquid Paper shows its relevance through its longevity of use to even today. At each step along the way, she expanded the business, moving her production out of her kitchen into her backyard, then into a four-room house. She has a sister named Yvonne as well. This cookie is set by Microsoft Advertising. 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. It was a profession that used to be a reliable path to the middle class, as noted by Heather Long in the Washington Post last year. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Each new breakthrough required more employees and more space. Sources say that Bette passed away six months after selling her Liquid Paper business at 56 years of age. Unsubscribe whenever. Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 - May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of white-out.
, The secretary who turned Liquid Paper into a multimillion-dollar business, A woman is suing Jack Daniels over whiskey fungus, Some personal news: LinkedIn is cringe AF, Eli Lilly cuts insulin costs for real, this time, The student loan forgiveness hearing, explained, Kids cant get enough of this influencer sports drink, The supply chain is fine, but inflation is not. Bette was born to Jesse McMurray and Christine Duval in Dallas, Texas. 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. Despite increasing health issues, Bette Graham managed to wrest back control of the company and in 1979, Liquid Paper was sold to Gillette for $47.5 million and Bette's royalty rights were restored. Grahams invention of correction fluid gave her a glimpse of a potential way out of her troubles, and she tried to form a business, calling it the Mistake Out Company, but could not afford the $400 patent fee. As they say, every story starts somewhere, and Bette Nesmith Grahamshowed us that it also ends with inspiration. setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-s4', 's4', ''); She was a typist, and artist, a secretary, a mother, and inventor of liquid paper. On a warm Texas night in 1956, Bette Nesmith later known as Bette Nesmith Graham sat in a garage surrounded by buckets of white tempera paint, empty nail polish bottles, and handmade labels. var b = document.cookie.match('(^|[^;]+)\\s*' + a + '\\s*=\\s*([^;]+)'); This is used to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. This allows the website to find the best variation/edition of the site. This cookie keeps track of a visitor's identity. In 1975 they went through an acrimonious divorce. Graham was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up nearby in San Antonio, Texas ("Bette Nesmith Graham: Liquid Paper Inventor," n.d.). As much as she wanted to help her kindred secretaries, Nesmith also noted that she, as a single mother and creative person, was equally motivated to find ways to empower working women. We also link to other websites, but are not responsible for their content. Slides: 10; Download presentation. setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-s1', 's1', ''); What we suggest is selected independently by the Kidadl team. grecaptcha.render('verify-your-humanity', { Both Stills and Spoonful frontman John Sebastian bristled at the idea of turning over their song publishing rights to the studio. And she did it all during a time when women were discouraged from pursuing business ventures. She enjoys painting. var hp_try = 0;
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. 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. var wrappingDiv = document.getElementById('email-submission'); A woman using an electric typewriter in the 1950s (Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images). subForm.appendChild(captchaVersion); She built it out of nothing. 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. The impetus for Graham's breakthrough came as she observed painters decorating the bank windows for the holidays. Hey, hey! setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-t', 't', ''); Born Bette Clair Murphy near Dallas, Texas, in 1924, Graham was raised to be imaginative, strong-willed, and independent. This is one the few tricks that she came to employ when she was working as a secretary. "Biography of Bette Nesmith Graham, Inventor of Liquid Paper." Graham's Liquid Paper Company experienced tremendous growth over the next decade. As her son Michael later recalled, financial pressures would cause his mother to frequently burst into tears of panic.. and 94% of those jobs are held by women. After work one day, she went to the library and looked up a recipe for tempera an age-old, water-based paint. Rather than remove their mistakes entirely, the painters simply covered any imperfections with an additional layer. function initForm() { At 19 years of age, she got married to Warren Nesmith. Who says the Monkees were not cutting-edge musicians? It is, in fact, native to North America and related to pineapples. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. She didn't know it then, but she was on the brink of something magical. Used To facilitate data center selection. I remember talking to her accountant, and he looked at me and said, You know, this company should never have existed. The carbon ribbons made these errors impossible to erase without leaving smudges all over the paper. Her mother was an artist, but her own ambition to be an artist was rechanneled when her marriage ended in divorce. setHiddenFieldValue(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-referral', 'ref', 'funnel_referral', ''); It contains the domain, viewCount (increments each pageView in a session), and session start timestamp. var captchaVersion = document.createElement('input'); Whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. 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. Identifies unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. 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. That secretary was Elizabeth Clair McMurray Nesmith Graham, the, With no background in chemical engineering, but guided by her side hustle of painting and graphic design, Bette Graham created the first correctional paint to fix document typos. Pinterest. Bette Nesmith Graham is no longer in the world, and hence her annual income can not be ascertained. Used to determine if a visitor has been shown a campaign by the slug. She died on May 12, 1980, of complications of a stroke. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2018, secretaries and administrative professionals account for some. Bellis, Mary. (2021, September 1). hp_interval = setInterval(function(){ Bette was strongly against growing fast on other peoples money, as she said in that same 1977 speech. The new machines did make typing easier, but their carbon-film ribbons made it impossible to correct mistakes neatly with a pencil eraser. By 1968, the LPC had become a multimillion-dollar organization, breaking ground on a huge business and manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas. Bette created a corporate culture that fully embraced diversity, inclusion and belonging, and she showed us that it could be extremely profitable to do so. Indicates whether MUID is transferred to ANID, a cookie used for advertising. The plant had equipment that could produce 500 bottles a minute. She came to name her final product as Liquid Paper in 1958.It was there that her trademark flourished and in 1975 she served as a distributor of her own company. Nesmith went off to World War II and while he was away, she had their only son, Michael Nesmith (later of The Monkees fame). } Graham poses for a photo later in life (University of North Texas archives). This cookie is set by LiveIntent. Over the next few years, her health declined rapidly. From Rolling Stone: His life changed forever in 1980 when. if ((existingVal == null || existingVal == '' || existingVal == defaultValue) && (newVal != null && newVal != '')) { In 1976, the Liquid Paper Corporation turned out 25 million bottles, while the company spent $1 million a year on advertising alone. Long before the delete key, typing and correspondence was a vital portion of the work, first with mechanical typewriters and then electronic ones. The musical television series, which would premiere later that year, offered cutting-edge comedy and brilliant pop music. } Paper and founder of the Liquid Paper Corporation. Graham died on May 12, 1980, six months after selling her company. When her husband returned home from World War II, the couple got divorced and Graham was left to single-handedly raise her child. With him, she had a son Michael Nesmith.Michael Nesmith is a musician and producer in his own right. Her son performed with Davy Jones. She was a difficult student in school as her stubborn personality led her to clash often with her teachers. She left high school to marry a man named Nesmith before World War II. Graham was sacked in 1960 after unintentionally signing a bank letter with the name of her private company. LPC had arrived as a global product that enjoyed nearly all of its market share. It is used for authentication purposes, to keep the user logged in to their Twitter account. Most easily identified by his trademark blue wool hat with pompom, Nesmith fashioned a diversified career within music and also in film. Bette Nesmith Graham was born to Jesse McMurray and Christine Duval in Dallas, Texas, on March 23, 1924. Then, just a few months later, Bette Nesmith Graham suffered a stroke and died at 59 years old. Business and tech news in 5 minutes or less. This cookie is set by OptinMonster. A clip from a commercial for Liquid Paper (YouTube). But she was also a budding product marketing genius: Over several decades, she identified a need in the market, organically grew her business, staved off competition, and bootstrapped her way to a $47.5m exit $173m in todays money. } else { For more information, check out our . var captchaApiScriptEl = document.createElement('script'); Our recommended activities are based on age but these are a guide. The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. Bette Nesmith Graham dropped out to marry Warren Audrey Nesmith, her childhood sweetheart and a soldier when it comes to family life. However, it was quite difficult to erase the ink in the case of any emerging mistakes. Check your inbox for your latest news from us. Bowie was born David Robert Jones, and went by Davy Jones in his early, formative rock & roll days. Nicholson purportedly hammered out the screenplay on acid. The 5' 6" Winkler fit the frame perfectly. form.find('.email-form-wrap').after('
Too fast! Bette is also well known as, Inventor of Liquid Paper who gave countless students a quick way to correct writing mistakes. 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. It's also employed as a functional fluid in arts and crafts from blacksmithing to jewelry tomodeling kits. Bette Nesmith Graham believed money to be a tool, not a solution to a problem. But it came down to inches. With Overlooked, were adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times. By joining Kidadl you agree to Kidadls Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receiving marketing communications from Kidadl. LPC also developed an expanded set of employee benefits that were highly uncommon for the time. searchParams, This cookie is set by Snapchat. Building a company of this magnitude alone would have been remarkable, but Nesmith shared with me a conversation he had with Bettes staff after she passed away in 1980. American typist and inventor of Liquid Paper (19241980), "From The Folks Who Gave You Liquid Paper", "Graham, Bette Clair McMurray (19241980)", "Overlooked No More: Bette Nesmith Graham, Who Invented Liquid Paper", Bette Nesmith Graham, Liquid Paper Inventor, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bette_Nesmith_Graham&oldid=1129392668, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 25 December 2022, at 03:03. 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. Davy Jones had to be written out of an episode so he could attend his sister's wedding. 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. She took the paint with her to the office which made her work easier than usual. LPC also boasted full implementation of affirmative action polices in the late 1970s with a racially integrated staff. After a while, Bette opted to part ways with her husband after the end of WWII. But really, that was it, he said. In the mid-70s, well before Zappos adopted a. , Bette was innovating with organizational structure. Born Bette Clair McMurray in Dallas in March 1924, she grew up in San Antonio. Most men are ignorant they dont really understand, she said in an interview with the Business Archives Project in 1977. Old Bette . But Graham didnt care much for traditional education. } Archival materials are from the University of North Texas Special Collection, with special thanks to Morgan Davis Gieringer and her staff. There was also focused emphasis on advancing women and black staff into senior roles. Can you fill in these blank classic TV episode titles with the correct foods? By 1957, Graham was selling 100 bottles per month to her colleagues. When Nesmith went off to fight in World War II, Bette was pregnant with a boy. A racially integrated staff that recognized affirmative action policies. The transatlantic foursome ofMicky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Davy Jones wrote and recorded a surprising range of music, from beat pop to country and psychedelic. When I started Liquid Paper Corporation, I had a deep desire to build a company based on ethical values a commitment to serve the interests of our customers above all and to encourage the cultural, educational and spiritual development of our employees, Bette said. Bridges. By 1964, the production of Liquid Paper grew 10x, to 5k bottles/week; in 1967, the company notched its first $1m in sales (~$8m today). hp_try += 1; This cookie is set by Sailthru. If you purchase using the buy now button we may earn a small commission. She also liked spending some time with her son. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. She was born in Texas, and became a secretary after high school. This cookie is set by Linkedin. For Graham, the parting was a blessing in disguise. One day at work, she accidentally signed off a letter The Mistake Out Company instead of Texas Bank and Trust, and was fired. if (false) { hp_ts = 0; In 1975, Liquid Paper moved into a 35,000-square-foot international headquarters building in Dallas. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Our lab is working on a faster drying solution, Graham wrote to one customer (the lab being her kitchen and her blender). I wanted the product to be absolutely perfect before I distributed it, and it seemed to take so long for that to happen.. Your submission failed.
if (el != null) { White-Out was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham, who is the mother of Michael Nesmith from the \ #FunFact #didyouknow. var existingVal = el.getAttribute('value'); I write about the power of negotiation and adaptive leadership. Linkedin sets this cookie. They would have one son in December 1942, Robert Michael Nesmith. She was a bad typist to boot. function getCookie(name) {
Cookies help to provide a more personalized experience and relevant advertising for you, and web analytics for us. March 23 Horoscope. Fast Facts: Bette Nesmith Graham Known For: Invention of the correcting fluid known as Liquid Paper Born: March 23, 1924 in Dallas Texas Parents: Christine Duval and Jesse McMurray Died: May 12, 1980 in Richardson, Texas Education: Left San Antonio's Alamo Heights School at 17 Graham was also an artist who observed that painters covered up mistakes not by erasing their work, but by painting over them. Soon the other secretaries wanted their own supply, and she found herself staying up late, filling bottles in her kitchen. subForm.prepend(captchaEl); I did not believe in outside short term borrowing to grow. She acquired shorthand and typing after her divorce and got work in a bank to support herself and her child. var onloadCallback = function() { She could see women who were at the highest places as executive assistants, but they didnt have decision making power.
Bette Nesmith Graham. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. }); A random, unique, device identifier, stored as a 1st party cookie, to enable targeted advertising, This cookie is set by LiveIntent. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For a time, LPC also had not one CEO but a council of three executives who comprised the Office of the President. The original idea was to cast an existing act, specifically the Lovin' Spoonful. Born in Saint Joseph's Hospital in downtown Houston, Texas, Nesmith was a self-described "failure . The great throwback album also included aposthumous contribution from Jones on a Neil Diamond written tune, "Love To Love," which was cut in 1967 and originally intended for the Headquarters album. A single inspiration led Graham to invent the typing correction fluid she came to call Liquid Paper. Bette also established an onsite child care center for working parents, meant to help LPC employees but open to any working parent who wanted to enroll their child. She left her fortune to her son, who took over her foundations and continued to dole out money to striving women. 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). March 23, The typos piled up, and when she tried to use an eraser, carbon ink would smear all over the page. Bette Nesmith Graham is best known as Entrepreneur who has born on March 23, 1924 in Dallas, TX. While that contemporary role might involve managing calendars and virtual meetings instead of fetching coffee, one thing remains timeless: the profession is almost entirely occupied, . Array.prototype.forEach.call(wrappingDivs,wrappingDiv => { 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. That same year, she divorced Robert Graham. function getCookieValue(a) { That technological shift (and the ensuing increase in typographical errors) became a source of inspiration for a new product in the 1950s. She was a tool-maker and highly motivated to help working women, said Michael Nesmith, her son. Graham, Bette Clair McMurray (1924-1980). Please note: prices are correct and items are available at the time the article was published. Jan. 05 1931. if(typeof hp_interval == 'undefined') { [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. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. She was born on March 23, 1924 and her birthplace is Dallas, TX. 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. She called her vision the Statement of Policy. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. 8 David Bowie named himself after a knife because of Davy Jones. 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. Details on the height of the inventor are unavailable. 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. She died on May 12, 1980, at the age of 56 years.Bette Nesmith Graham attended Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas, until she was 17. Rachel Pearce Core 1-2 7 th grade science 10/12/07. Here are a handful of fun facts to celebrate half a century of the Monkees. At the time of her death, Bette Graham was planning a building to house the foundations and the art collection including works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Helen Frankenthaler, and many other lesser-known artists. The Hustle uses the information you provide to contact you about our relevant content and services. setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-o', 'o', ''); return decodeURIComponent(cookiePair[1]); In that tone, she opted to paint an error instead of erasing it completely. It is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts. Liquid Paper Corporations' Statement of Policy. WhatsApp. Persists the Clarity User ID and preferences, unique to that site, on the browser. These remarkable employee benefits were further memorialized in the 1980 movie 9to5, about three secretaries that took over their company. This pairing service is provided by third-party advertisement hubs, which facilitates real-time bidding for advertisers. Shoot us a note here. Please try again! 2023, Hustle Con Media, Inc., All Rights Reserved. The Today in missed opportunities, Snapchat announced a GPT-powered personalized avatar named My AI (and not SnapChatGPT). ThoughtCo, Sep. 1, 2021, thoughtco.com/liquid-paper-bette-nesmith-graham-1992092. Bette loved to paint in her spare time. Her two foundations supported several ways to help women find new ways to earn a living, especially unwed mothers. Born Bette Clair McMurray in Dallas in March 1924, she grew up in San Antonio. 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. This cookie is set by Hotjar. She left school at 17 to become a secretary and married her high school sweetheart, Warren Nesmith, two years later. When the other secretaries realized how well the invention worked, they flooded Graham with requests for their own supplies. Provided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services. Graham continued experimenting with the makeup of the substance until she achieved the perfect combination of paint and several other chemicals. Don't worry, the other two had good excuses. She now had time to devote to selling Liquid Paper, and business boomed. Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With a never give up soul, Graham went on with her experiment till when she came up with a picture-perfect combination. Over the next few years, she sought help from a number of industry professionals, including a polymer chemist named Bill Mallow, and further refined her product for a mass market. More interesting Facts Bette Nesmith Graham Worked as a bank secretary Later she rose to the executive secretary Some bosses admonished her from using it. The cookie contains an id that is used to identify a users pageviews within a session. 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