Helen Knox

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Helen Knox. Born in Giddings, Texas, in 1885, daughter of a bank president, a man named W.A.

Knox. Now you might think that's where the story ends, the banker's daughter in a small Texas town. You would be wrong.

Helen Knox had a way of showing up in places women simply weren't expected to be, and making herself impossible to ignore. At the University of Texas, she was one of the few women to earn an athletic letter, and she earned hers in tennis. Let that sit with you a moment.

One of the few. Not one of many. One of the few.

From Giddings to the courts of the University of Texas, and she was just getting started. By 1927, Helen Knox had made her way to New York City, to the Chase National Bank, where she became manager of women's accounts. She built a reputation for her writings on banking, the kind of work that gets you noticed in rooms where most people still hadn't noticed women were in the room at all.

She served as chairman of finance in the restoration of the home of General Robert E. Lee. She belonged to the Colonial Dames and the D.A.R.

And then, from 1944 to 1946, she served as president of the National Association of Bank Women. Historian. Financier.

Tennis player. Helen Knox of Giddings, Texas. She passed in 1959, and I'll tell you what, the marker they put up for her in Lee County doesn't waste a single word.

Neither should we.

What the marker says

(1885-1959) Historian-financier. One of the few women given athletic letters (in tennis) at the University of Texas. Born in Giddings, daughter of bank president W.A. Knox, she became (1927) manager of women's accounts, Chase National Bank, New York. Known for her writings on banking, she was chairman of finance in restoration of home of Gen. Robert E. Lee; she belonged to Colonial Dames and D.A.R., and was president (1944-46), National Association of Bank Women. Recorded - 1971