Background
Bette Nesmith Graham was born Bette Clair McMurray in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, United Stats to Jesse McMurray, an automotive supply company manager, and Christine Duval. She was raised in San Antonio.
Bette Nesmith Graham was born Bette Clair McMurray in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, United Stats to Jesse McMurray, an automotive supply company manager, and Christine Duval. She was raised in San Antonio.
Bette Clair McMurray dropped out of school when she was seventeen because of disciplinary difficulties.
In the 1940 there were very few jobs open to young women. She could not type, but she got a job as a secretary for a law firm because of her personality. The attorneys sent her to night school for her high-school diploma and secretarial training.
In 1951 McMurray was an executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust in Dallas. The typewriters used there had ribbons made with carbon film. Erasing errors made on these typewriters looked messy. As an amateur painter, McMurray knew that artists made corrections by painting over mistakes rather than erasing them. So, she began using a white tempera paint to paint over her mistakes.
It did not take long for the secretaries at the Texas Bank and Trust to catch on to McMurray's idea. By 1956 she was bottling "Mistake Out" in her garage for their use. She started learning about how paints are made and experimented with changing the formula. She developed a quick-drying modification that was nearly undetectable after use.
By 1957 she had patented her product with the new name "Liquid Paper. " She had her son fill little bottles with Liquid Paper in a work space at her home. After she was fired for accidentally typing "The Liquid Paper Company" on a letter instead of her employer's company name, she devoted herself full-time to selling Liquid Paper.
It was not until the late 1960 that McMurray's efforts began to pay off, and then it became very successful. Gillette bought Liquid Paper in 1979 for $47. 5 million and agreed to pay royalties to McMurray on every bottle sold until the year 2000.
She was the inventor of Liquid Paper. Starting on a basis of tempera paint she mixed with a common kitchen blender, she called the outcome fluid Mistake Out and started to provide her co-workers with small bottles on which the brand's name was displayed. By 1968, the product was profitable, and in 1979 the Liquid Paper Corporation was sold to the Gillette Corporation for $47. 5 million with royalties.
She married Warren Nesmith in 1942, and their son (Michael) was born in 1943. After she and her husband divorced in 1946, she had to provide for her son and herself, and she attempted to do so, relying on her shaky secretarial skills.
In 1962 Bette Nesmith married Robert Graham, who joined her in running the company. They divorced in 1975.
