Liquid paper products Womens Museum.jpg, Photo: User FA2010 (From Wikimedia Commons)

Women and Adversity:
Bette Nesmith Graham
Inventor of Liquid Paper

Bette Nesmith Graham’s story is miraculous and what most people dream would happen for them. This Texas native dropped out of high school to attend secretarial school. She got a job at Texas Bank and Trust and worked her way to executive secretary to the chairman of the board.

In the 1950s IBM electric typewriters were popular but caused secretaries headaches because the keys were sensitive to the touch and typed fast. The carbon ribbons didn’t make corrections feasible, and when secretaries made mistakes, they had to retype an entire page. Graham began using white, water-based tempera paint to cover her typing errors. When it dried, she could type over the mistake. She mixed various chemicals in a blender to get the perfect combination, and her final product was Liquid Paper.

Her personal life didn’t have happy endings. She married Warren Nesmith when she was 19, and had a son, Michael, while Nesmith was fighting in World War II. When he returned, the couple divorced. Bette married Robert Graham in 1962, but he tried to take control of the Liquid Paper company, so she divorced him in 1975.

She sold Liquid Paper to Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million in 1979.

Her son Michael made a name for himself as a member of the popular 1960s rock group, The Monkees.

 Bio:

• Born Bette Clair McMurry March 23, 1924 in Dallas, Texas. Raised in San Antonio.
• 1941 —  quit high school to marry her high school sweetheart, Warren Nesmith;  attended secretarial school.
• 1942 — Warren went in the Army; Bette went to night school to earn her GED.
• December 30, 1942 — their son Michael was born.
• 1946 — the couple divorce.
• 1951 —  Bette becomes executive secretary for W.W. Overton, chairman of the board of Texas Bank and Trust.
• 1954 —  began experimenting with chemicals and white tempera paint to make a liquid to cover up typing errors. Hired her son Michael and his friends at $1 an hour to fill nail polish bottles with the liquid. They cut the brushes at an angle for better application and applied labels by hand.
• 1956 — Graham started to sell “Mistake Out.”
• 1958 — fired from her bank job because she was spending too much time making her product. Renamed her product “Liquid Paper”  and applied for a patent and trademark.
• 1962 — married Robert Graham.
• 1967 —  her company had corporate headquarters, automated production plant and sales of more than one million units per year.
• 1975 —  moved operations to a 35,000 square foot international Liquid Paper headquarters in Dallas. The company was making 25 million bottles of Liquid Paper each year. Divorced Graham.
• 1976 — established the Gihon Foundation for women in the arts.
• 1978 — established the Bette Clair McMurray Foundation for women in need.
• 1979 —  sold her company to Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million.

Bette Nesmith Graham died of a stroke May 12, 1980 in Richardson, Texas at the age of 56.

More Information:
blueoceanthinking.substack.com/p/inspirational-entrepreneur-bette
www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/women-of-history-bette-graham
www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/journeys-innovation/historical-stories/perseverance-thy-name-bette