Historian, teacher, and library Llerena Beaufort Friend (1903-1995) graduated from the University of Austin at Texas with a bachelor’s in 1924, a master’s in 1928, and a doctorate in 1951. For twenty years, from 1924 to 1944, Friend taught high school, first in Vernon, Texas, and then in Wichita Falls, Texas. In 1945, she began writing for the Handbook of Texas as a research associate at the Texas State Historical Association. Upon the founding of the Barker Texas History Center at the University of Texas in 1950, Friend became its founding director, holding the position until 1969. Additionally, she taught courses in Texas history at the university. She wrote numerous articles and reviews while at UT and published her book Sam Houston: The Great Designer in 1954.
After retiring in 1969, Friend served as the National Chairman of Academic Standards for Alpha Chi Omega for six years. She moved back to Wichita Falls in 1975, and in 1976 Governor Dolph Briscoe appointed her to Texas State Historical Records Advisory Board. She belonged to various organizations, such as the Ashbel Smith Literary Society, the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Texas Institute of Letters, the Wichita County Historical Commission, the Rolling Plains Civil War Roundtable, the Texas State Historical Association, and the Western History Association. She received numerous awards including the H. Bailey Carroll Award, Alpha Chi Omega achievement award, and the Texas Library Association Award. Furthermore, she was nominated to the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1987.
Source: Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Friend, Llerena Beaufort," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffrqv.html (accessed August 12, 2010).
From the guide to the Llerena Beaufort Friend Papers 73-9; 73-119; 89-169; 91-300; 2006-013; 2010-207., 1918-1986, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
