From struggling single mother to business diva, Bette Nesmith Graham’s grit and perseverance was epic. So was her story. If you want to be inspired, read Perseverance, thy name is Bette at this month’s installation of the USPTO’s Journeys of Innovation.
“She stood outside the Texas Bank and Trust high-rise building in downtown Dallas one mild southern winter day, watching brush stroke after brush stroke as the artists slowly transformed the bank’s exterior windows into a painted festive scene for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Mesmerized, she observed the artists layer different colors of paint on the windows, erasing misplaced brush strokes in an instant.
Then it clicked.
Her lifelong passion for the arts — combined with a healthy dose of perseverance — would save her career.
Perseverance had served Bette Clair McMurray well. She used it to pursue her GED after dropping out of school at age 17 to attend secretarial school and marry her high school sweetheart, Warren Nesmith. It was perseverance’s cousin, grit, that helped her raise their infant son, Michael, while Nesmith served overseas as a soldier in World War II. Now, creative determination would save her job.
The clack, clack, clack sound of typewriters was ubiquitous in offices during the 1950s.
During this time many offices transitioned from manual typewriters to electric typewriters. While electric typewriters helped to automate many processes increasing efficiency, the messy carbon-film ribbons and sensitive key triggers resulted in more typos. An eraser could be used to fix the mistake, but the carbon ink would smear all over the page, necessitating the remaking of the document for a single error….” Read the rest at USPTO’s Journeys of Innovation.
Quoted content comes directly from the USPTO’s Journeys of Innovation site, linked above.