Nellie Gray Robertson

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Nellie Gray Robertson of Hood County. Now, some stories sneak up on you quiet, and some arrive like a courthouse door swung wide open. This one's the latter.

Nellie Gray Robertson was born in 1894, the sixth child and the only daughter of William Jarrett Robertson and Arminda Barton Robertson. She grew up in Hood County, and the marker doesn't sugarcoat it: there were financial hardships. But hardship has a funny way of sharpening a person, and Nellie Gray Robertson got sharp.

In the fall of 1912, she walked through the doors of the University of Texas. She stayed six years. Six years, and when she walked back out, she had passed the Texas Bar, 1918, and stepped into a profession that, at the time, belonged almost entirely to men.

She could have gone anywhere. She went home. Back to Hood County, where she knew the land and the people knew her, and she ran in the Democratic Party primary for county attorney.

She won. And just like that, Nellie Gray Robertson became the first female county attorney in the State of Texas. Not the first in Hood County.

The first in the whole state. Between 1918 and 1926, the voters of Hood County sent her back to that seat three times. Three terms.

She was a fixture. She was the job. In 1922, she decided to reach further.

She ran for county judge of Hood County, against four men, and she lost. That's the marker's word, and we'll honor it: she lost. But here's the thing about Nellie Robertson.

Losing an election in 1922 just meant she was back in the county attorney's seat by May of the very next year. You do not keep that woman out of a courtroom. Then came 1925, and this is where the story gets its sharpest edge.

Nellie was named to sit as chief justice on the first all-woman Texas Supreme Court. Chief justice. Of a historic, first-of-its-kind court.

And then, a rule. Any justice had to have practiced law for at least seven years. Nellie Gray Robertson was a couple of months shy of that requirement.

A couple of months. She could not serve. Let that sit with you for a moment on this Texas road.

All the while, Nellie lived at home on Travis Street in Granbury with her mother. She never married. She carried her own name, her own cases, her own career.

After she left elected office in 1926, she didn't slow down, she changed directions. She moved to New York City and wrote law books for Doubleday Publishing. Then in 1927 she came back to Texas, this time to Houston, to work for the Stewart Abstract and Title Guarantee Company.

She climbed. She was promoted to manage the Stewart Title Company in Beaumont, where she worked for twenty years. She was also a partner in the Beaumont law firm of Stewart, Burgess, Morris, and Robertson.

And on top of all of that, she served as grand matron of the Granbury chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. First female county attorney in Texas. Named chief justice of the first all-woman Texas Supreme Court.

Three terms in elected office. Law books in New York. Two decades in Beaumont.

Partner in a law firm. Community leader. All of it starting in Hood County, with a girl who was the only daughter, growing up through financial hardship, who walked into the University of Texas in 1912 and decided the world of law had enough room for her whether it knew it yet or not.

It turns out it did. Because Nellie Gray Robertson helped open those doors, and she left them open behind her.

What the marker says

Born in 1894 as the sixth and only daughter of William Jarrett Robertson and Arminda Barton Robertson, Nellie Gray Robertson grew up amid financial hardships in Hood County. She entered the University of Texas in the fall of 1912 and attended for six years. Nellie passed the Texas Bar in 1918 to join the male-dominated profession of law. Nellie returned to Hood County to run in the Democratic Party primary for county attorney. She became the first female county attorney in the State of Texas. Between 1918 and 1926, Nellie was elected county attorney for three terms. In 1922, she ran for county judge of Hood County against four men and lost. However, in May of the next year, Nellie returned to the county attorney's seat. She was named to sit as chief justice on the first all-woman Texas Supreme Court in 1925 but she could not serve because of the rule that any justice had to have practiced law for at least seven years. She was a couple of months shy of this requirement. Nellie lived at home with her mother on Travis Street in Granbury and never married. After Nellie left elected office in 1926, she moved to New York City to write law books for Doubleday Publishing. Nellie returned to Texas to work for the Stewart Abstract and Title Guarantee Company in Houston in 1927. She was promoted to manage the Stewart Title Company in Beaumont where she worked for 20 years. Nellie was also a partner in the Beaumont law firm Stewart, Burgess, Morris, and Robertson. Nellie was very active in the community, serving as grand matron of the Granbury chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Nellie Robertson helped open the doors for women to become involved in politics and positions of power in Texas. (2014)