Neal, Margie Elizabeth, 1875-1971

Margie Elizabeth Neal (1875-1971) was the first woman state senator in Texas. Born near Clayton, Texas, Neal attended Sam Houston State Teachers College, but left before graduating to teach school in Fort Worth. After teaching a short time, she returned to Carthage, Texas, in 1903 to care for her ill mother. In 1903, her father, William Lafayette Neal, purchased the weekly newspaper, the Texas Mule, for her. She edited and published the paper under the name East Texas Register before selling it to J. M. Carnes in 1911. A noted suffragist, Neal was a district chairman in the fight for women’s suffrage and the first woman to register to vote in Panola County. Furthermore, she was the first woman member of the State Democratic Executive Committee and attended the 1920 National Democratic Convention in San Francisco as a delegate. From 1921 to 1927, she served on the board of regents for the State Teachers Colleges.

Panola County elected Neal to the Texas Senate in 1926, and she served four consecutive terms before retiring in 1935. During her time as a senator, she focused on educational issues, helping to establish the State Board of Education, introducing public school physical education classes, and securing a large appropriation for rural education. Additionally, she sponsored legislation providing for rehabilitation for the handicapped.

For ten years following her terms as state senator, Neal worked with the National Recovery Administration and the federal Social Security Administration in Washington, D. C. She retired to her home in Carthage in 1945, but continued to be an active community leader. In June 1952, Carthage held an appreciation day for Neal where Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor Allan Shivers, and Oveta Culp Hobby spoke. Neal, who never married, died in Carthage, Texas, in 1971.

Sources:

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Neal, Margie Elizabeth, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/NN/fne2.html (accessed July 27, 2010).

Neal, Margie E., Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

From the guide to the Margie E. Neal Papers 1954., 1875-1953, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)