Born in 1907 in Granger, Texas, Flora Goforth spent her childhood in Texas and New Mexico. Relatives on both sides of her family had been weavers, spurring her desire to make a career out of designing surface patterns. She attended Texas Technological College in the late 1920s-early 1930s. Texas Technological College was the only school west of the Mississippi to have a textile school.
A sociable person, Goforth became the first freshmen to be elected president of the Home Economics Club. Music also occupied her time as Flora played the saxophone in the Girl's Orchestra and the trombone in the Tech Band. While teaching for the Indian Service at the Sioux Reservation, Goforth sought to impart to her students the perfection in the straight edges of weaving. Under her direction, students learned to create their own designs, build looms, weave the textiles, and finely turn them into a useable product such as a scarf or jacket that was marketable. Her book, Weave It Yourself, showed the reader how to build a loom and the steps required to produce the depicted blanket. This book included photographs of her students at work.
From the guide to the Flora Goforth Papers, U 242. 2., 1927-1934 and undated, (Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University)
