DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it its due. Now, some stories start quiet and end loud — and Emma Grigsby Meharg is exactly that kind of story. She came into the world in Lynnville, Tennessee, and in 1883 she made the long move to Texas with her parents, Jasper N. and Mary A.
Grigsby — Mary A. being a Calvert before she married. Texas had a way of holding onto the people it called in, and it held onto Emma. She graduated from college, became a teacher, and married a man named Samuel W.
Meharg. By 1902, she and Samuel had come to Plainview, and together they were educators in this community. That word — together — matters here.
Two teachers, building something. But Emma wasn't content to just hold a classroom. She helped organize clubs.
She helped organize civic endeavors. She helped organize the First Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. in Plainview. The woman was a builder in just about every sense of the word, and she raised a daughter and a son while doing it.
Now here's where the story turns its collar up and steps into the big light. 1925. Texas sends a woman to the governor's office for the first time in its history — Miriam A. Ferguson.
And Governor Ferguson, in one of her first acts of appointment, looks around and says, in so many words: who do we want representin' the state of Texas as Secretary of State? The answer was Emma Grigsby Meharg. Texas' first woman Secretary of State.
Appointed by the first woman Governor of Texas. And with that, Emma Meharg — the girl from Lynnville, Tennessee, who came to this state in 1883, who taught school in Plainview, who built churches and clubs and community — won international renown. Started quiet.
Ended very, very loud.
What the marker says
Born in Lynnville, Tenn.; moved to Texas with parents, Jasper N. and Mary A. (Calvert) Grigsby, 1883. Graduated from college, became a teacher, married Samuel W. Meharg. Came to Plainview (1902), where she and husband were educators. She helped organize clubs, First Presbyterian Church, U.S.A, civic endeavors. Had daughter and son. Won international renown, 1925, as Texas' first woman Secretary of State, by appointment of first woman Governor, Miriam A. Ferguson. Erected - 1972