Ledbetter, Lena Dancy

Lena Dancy Ledbetter (1850-1936), civic leader, housewife, and amateur composer, was born to John Winfield Scott Dancy and Lucy Ann Nowlin in La Grange, Texas. John Winfield Scott Dancy, an attorney and politician, owned a plantation outside of La Grange. Lena Dancy Ledbetter lived near La Grange during the Civil War, meeting many historical figures, including Sam Houston, Robert E. Lee, General John Bankhead Magruder, and Francis R. Lubbock. At 14, Lena Dancy, interested in weaving, spun and wove a day dress completely by hand.

In the latter half of the 1860s she was sent to school at the Carnatz Institute in New Orleans. Upon graduation in 1870, she married James Peacock Ledbetter, an attorney from Round Top, Texas. They had five daughters and two sons together. In 1888, they moved to Coleman, Texas, to start a ranch and Lena became involved in social and religious activities. Active in the Episcopal Church, Lena was the secretary of the Ladies’ Cemetery Association and a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

In addition to her activities in the community, Lena was an avid singer and composer, who organized a home orchestra, a ladies’ orchestra, and a music club of thirty members, which was expanded into a federated club focused on literature, art, music, and child study. Interested in history, Lena Dancy donated many of her possessions and her papers to various museums and archives, such as the Texas Memorial Museum, the Barker Texas History Center, and the Daughters of the American Revolution museum. Lena Dancy Ledbetter died in 1936.

Sources:

Cook, Gertrude Harris. “Memoirs of a Texas Plantation Belle,” The Dallas Morning News, March 22, 1931.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. “Dancy, John Winfield Scott,“ http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/fda7.html (accessed June 23, 2010).

From the guide to the Ledbetter, Lena Dancy, Papers 1956; 83-105., 1830-1950, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)