This does not influence our choices. captchaApiScriptEl.defer = true; } Bette Nesmith left her typing job at the bank in 1958 when Mistake Out finally began to succeed: her product was featured in office supply magazines, she had a meeting with IBM, and General Electric placed an order for 500 bottles. White-Out was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham, who is the mother of Michael Nesmith from the \ #FunFact #didyouknow. Slowly, he became more involved in the business and attempted to take power away from her, prompting her to file for a second divorce in 1975. For a variety of reasons - technology changes, increased access to education or better professional opportunities - the profession is on. 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. 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. There is little to glean information about her death. Kidadl is independent and to make our service free to you the reader we are supported by advertising. Jack Nicholson and directorBob Rafelson were the brains behind the postmodern high jinks. Bette would go on to perfect her product and build a fortune around it, eventually creating foundations that did help empower working women. The plant, as Graham would put it, is still going strong. Bette loved to paint in her spare time. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. 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 They would have one son in December 1942, Robert Michael Nesmith. Her birthplace is Dallas, Texas, where her parents, Jesse McMurray and Christine Duval, used to live. Bette Nesmith Graham. Without a doubt, his technique worked beyond her belief. Her mother, Christine Duval, was an artist and a businesswoman who opened her own knitting store and taught Bette oil painting. This cookie is set by Twitter to identify and track the website visitor. Nevertheless, she made little money despite working nights and weekends to fill orders. This is one the few tricks that she came to employ when she was working as a secretary. She built the company with no cash, and just supported us with her secretary job for years. }); if(hp_ts >= 180) { They would divorce in 1946, and Bette went to work. setHiddenFieldValueFromUtm(wrappingDiv, sp, 'funnel-f', 'f', ''); By 1968, the LPC had become a multimillion-dollar organization, breaking ground on a huge business and manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas. Bette Nesmith Graham. Inventor. It contains an opaque GUID to represent the current visitor. Most men are ignorant they dont really understand, she said in an interview with the Business Archives Project in 1977. You have subscribed to: Remember that you can always manage your preferences or unsubscribe through the link at the foot of each newsletter. March 23, The Hustle uses the information you provide to contact you about our relevant content and services. But as Graham soon learned, the invention had several downsides: Graham had to find a way to fix her numerous typos. In the mid-70s, well before Zappos adopted a holocracy model, Bette was innovating with organizational structure. 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. In that tone, she opted to paint an error instead of erasing it completely. , her son. var el = wrappingDiv.getElementsByClassName(className)[0]; This article contains incorrect information, This article doesnt have the information Im looking for, Other Interesting Bette Nesmith Graham Facts And Trivia. Aaaaaayyyyy! However, it was quite difficult to erase the ink in the case of any emerging mistakes. Why? Mistake Out became Liquid Paper. For more information, check out our .

The rival Wite-Out would come along in 1966 just like the Monkees. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. Grahams product began to catch on. And she did it all during a time when women were discouraged from pursuing business ventures. She established 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. Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 - May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of the correction fluid Liquid Paper. I think she might have gotten a $600 loan from a family member at some point. Business and tech news in 5 minutes or less. } On weekends, she traveled around Texas pitching Mistake Out to wholesalers. if (utmName == 'ref') { 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. 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. Kidadl has a number of affiliate partners that we work with including Amazon. initForm(); The growing venture operated first out of her garage, then a small storage unit in her backyard and eventually, in 1965, in a four room single family home. Born Bette Clair Murphy near Dallas, Texas, in 1924, Graham was raised to be imaginative, strong-willed, and independent. el.setAttribute("value", newVal); Bettes original product was called Mistake Out, which she formed a company around in 1956. 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. Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. According to sources, Bettes product received more demand in over 40 countries. } Bellis, Mary. She was an actress. Used to remember a user's language setting to ensure LinkedIn.com displays in the language selected by the user in their settings. Robert Michael Nesmith, her baby boy, was born on December 30, 1946. Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Bette Nesmith Graham has received more than 637,807 page views. Each new breakthrough required more employees and more space. Bette Nesmith Graham believed money to be a tool, not a solution to a problem. Bette Nesmith Graham used it to fix her typos covertly.Her creation of liquid paper in 1951 created history. }; The tenacious woman managed to hold on to 49% of the company. if (el != null) { She didn't live to see the end of the contract, dying in 1980. Starting as a secretary, she found a way to solve typos for millions of people and grew a visionary corporation around it. Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics: Includes Elizabeth Lucas Pinckney (indigo plant dye), Martha Coston (signal flares), Fannie Farmer (standardized recipes), Madam C. J. Walker (hair-care products), S. Josephine Baker (child hygiene), Barbara McClintock (genetics), Bette Nesmith Graham (Liquid Paper), Grace Hopper (computer-programming language), Ruth Handler (the Barbie doll), and . That same year, she divorced Robert Graham. She was a typist, and artist, a secretary, a mother, and inventor of liquid paper. This cookie is set by Hotjar. Liquid Paper Corporations' Statement of Policy. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
She was previously married to Robert Graham and Warren Audrey Nesmith. Her first employees were her teenage son and his friends. This cookie is set by OptinMonster. So, in 1979, the inventor of Liquid Paper sold the company to Gillette for $47.5 million, plus a deal for royalties. 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 by women. Identifies a new users first session. Linkedin sets this cookie. Linkedin sets this cookie. When Nesmith went off to fight in World War II, Bette was pregnant with a boy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2018, secretaries and administrative professionals account for some 2 million jobs and 94% of those jobs are held by women. When you buy through the links on our site we may earn a commission. Cookies help to provide a more personalized experience and relevant advertising for you, and web analytics for us. It was during Bettes days that electric typewriters gained more fame across the world. hp_ts += 1; Can you recognize these stars on the cover of TV Guide in 1970? Pinterest. She formed a multimillion-dollar global company after inventing Liquid Paper. Graham formed the Liquid Paper Company in 1958, spawning a multimillion-dollar market. In 1979, Bette Graham sold the company for $47.5 million dollars and royalties on every bottle until the year 2000. She died on May 12, 1980, at the age of 56 years. var error = wrappingDiv.getElementsByClassName('funnel-error')[0]; Soon the other secretaries wanted their own supply, and she found herself staying up late, filling bottles in her kitchen. That rankled her to no end, Nesmith said to me over the phone. Linkedin sets this cookie. Graham with her son Michael in 1957 (via newspaper archives). By 1977, the corporation was shipping tens of millions of units. 100% free. A few years ago, Kimi Coy and her mother, Carolyn Benyshek, booked a mother-daughter trip to Singapore. The quartet hardly gets enough credit as an actual band. The rival Wite-Out would come along in 1966 just like the Monkees. 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. 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. Bette Nesmith Graham was a secretary in Dallas and a single mother raising her son. March 23 Horoscope. Delivered weekdays plus a bonus Sunday feature. Interested? But really, that was it, he said. 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 contains the domain, viewCount (increments each pageView in a session), and session start timestamp. Click here for more Fun Facts! Walter Koenig has said his iconic character was modeled after Davy Jones. Your submission failed. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. She hired a staff of employees to help out with marketing, production, and logistics. 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. That was intentional. Shed previously had a side hustle painting window displays at the bank. She would often burst into tears of panic, Michael Nesmith wrote in his autobiography, Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff (2017). They are passionate about turning your everyday moments into memories and bringing you inspiring ideas to have fun with your family.

Your submission failed. var wrappingDiv = document.getElementById('email-submission'); She continued to refine her recipe in her kitchen laboratory, which was based on a formula for tempura paint she found at the local library, with assistance from a paint company employee and a chemistry teacher at a local school. This structure was a part of LPCs culture of high ethical standards, which Bette developed in 1968. She could see women who were at the highest places as executive assistants, but they didnt have decision making power.

Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 - May 12, 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of white-out. She acquired shorthand and typing after her divorce and got work in a bank to support herself and her child. In the mid of 1979, Bette Graham decided to sell her company to Gillette Corporation for $50 million. As they say, every story starts somewhere, and Bette Nesmith Grahamshowed us that it also ends with inspiration. Her correction fluid would be a godsend for typists. } This cookie is set by Microsoft Advertising. She didnt know it then, but she was on the brink of something magical. You have to face fears and doubts constantly. This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. The secretary that invented this product was, by many accounts, a bad typist but an extraordinary entrepreneur. } Born on March 23, 1924 Died on May 12, 1980 Born in Corpus Christi, Texas Worked as a secretary at a bank. Born in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, Bette Graham dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen and went to secretarial school. The new machines did make typing easier, but their carbon-film ribbons made it impossible to correct mistakes neatly with a pencil eraser. Nesmith married Robert Graham in 1962, and he joined the business as well. With a never give up soul, Graham went on with her experiment till when she came up with a picture-perfect combination. Used to monitor the technical information and use of devices that connect to our website to protect it from malicious traffic. A struggling secretary created a concoction that relieved her and others around the world from the pressure of perfection.
She was the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith of The Monkees.[1]. 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. This cookie is set by Sailthru. Alvin Ailey. Tracks recent pageviews for all visitors, and can be used to populate a new user profile. She became a full-time small business owner, applied for a patent, and changed the name to the Liquid Paper Company. Unsubscribe whenever. Liquid Paper numbers weren't available to Graham, but most of those uses could apply to it as well. Subscribe for virtual tools, STEM-inspired play, } 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. Bellis, Mary. But it came down to inches. Used to store consent of guests regarding the use of cookies for non-essential purposes. 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 ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. She is famous because she invented liquid paper. By 1967, the company had its own corporate headquarters and automated production plant, and sales were in excess of one million units per year. 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. Grahams impact on her revolutionary invention, Liquid Paper shows its relevance through its longevity of use to even today. Who is Bette Nesmith Graham: Bette Nesmith Graham is a famous Entrepreneur. Graham wasnt a chemist or an engineer. She called her vision the Statement of Policy. They had accommodation for differently-abled people, including employees who used wheelchairs and a program for blind employees. 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. As her son Michael later recalled, financial pressures would cause his mother to frequently burst into tears of panic.. ThoughtCo, Sep. 1, 2021, thoughtco.com/liquid-paper-bette-nesmith-graham-1992092. Bettes decent life and humble background made her not to step a foot in high school. Sales grew in tandem with exposure. The quick-thinking Graham mimicked their technique by using a white, water-based tempera paint to cover her typing errors. Graham's Liquid Paper Company experienced tremendous growth over the next decade. Used To facilitate data center selection. [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. function initForm() { Despite her best efforts to keep the concoction a secret, word soon got out and fellow secretaries wanted in on the action. The _omappvs cookie, used in conjunction with the _omappvp cookies, is used to determine if the visitor has visited the website before, or if it is a new visitor. It is used for tracking and personalization purposes, such as remembering a user's preferences and activity on the site. Set to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit. 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. 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. Graham spent heavily on advertising, showcasing her product during prime-time TV programs like The Tonight Show and in Glamour and Fortune magazine spreads. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. 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. This cookie is set by Microsoft Clarity. Its like a plant that is rooted in the ground. After few trials and fails, Bette tried an odorless and colorless paint with a watercolor brush. How to Find Mass of a Liquid From Density, University of Texas at Dallas: Acceptance Rate and Admissions Statistics, Biography of Bonnie and Clyde, Notorious Depression-Era Outlaws, University of Dallas: Acceptance Rate and Admissions Statistics, Get to Know These 91 Famous Female Scientists. return decodeURIComponent(cookiePair[1]); Nesmith was raised in Dallas by his mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, who invented the first correction fluid in 1956 while working as a typist. In the mid-70s, well before Zappos adopted a. , Bette was innovating with organizational structure. Its non-linear structure and surrealism would profoundly influence MTV videos.
From lino cutting to surfing to childrens mental health, their hobbies and interests range far and wide. Whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. , 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. While Bette Nesmith Graham did not win any awards, but she sure was one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of her era. She called her product Mistake Out.. var b = document.cookie.match('(^|[^;]+)\\s*' + a + '\\s*=\\s*([^;]+)'); subForm.prepend(captchaEl); In 1968, she moved into her own plant and corporate headquarters in Dallas with automated operations and 19 employees. function getCookie(name) { $('input.hp_ts').val(hp_ts); She found employment in 1951 as an executive secretary for the Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas. However, she continued to participate in the final manufacture of Liquid Paper. Please note: prices are correct and items are available at the time the article was published. Years earlier, in 1962, shed married a frozen-food salesman named Robert Graham and had given him partial control of Liquid Papers business affairs. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month.
In 1956, Bette Nesmith started the Mistake Out Company: her son Michael and his friends filled bottles for her customers. Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. This cookie is set by Google and is used to distinguish users. Are you a human? Then, just a few months later, Bette Nesmith Graham suffered a stroke and died at 59 years old. Hailing as a hardworking secretary and a single mother, who raised a son all by herself, there is no doubt that she tried anything to make ends meet. 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. She would sell the company for $47.5 million in 1979 and donate millions to charity six months before she died at 56. Holds current session data. This cookie is set by CHEQ AI Technologies. 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. Bette Nesmith Graham was an exceptional inventor. 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. if(typeof hp_interval == 'undefined') { One day at work, she accidentally signed off a letter The Mistake Out Company instead of Texas Bank and Trust, and was fired. effectively the mission statement written by their founder, Bette Graham, in 1968. If you purchase using the buy now button we may earn a small commission. Afterward, she came to accept that her invention would come to help the world and beyond. She whipped up a white-colored liquid in her kitchen blender, poured it into an empty nail polish bottle, and started covertly using it at work to cover up typos on documents. So she sneaked some fast-drying white tempera paint into work and concealed her typos with a watercolor brush. Her biography is available in 19 . The creators were keen on Dolenz, and even Henry Winkler thought his chances were slim when he spotted this adorable pop star at an audition. In Wyoming, Alterras Jackson Hole has sold out of day passes. She was a tool-maker and highly motivated to help working women, said. And then she was forced to use a new typewriter model which had sensitive key triggers and a carbon ribbon instead of one made of fabric.