Kate Moore Brown (December 17, 1871 - March 28, 1945) was an American musician, clubwoman and traveler who lived in El Paso, Texas. Brown was one of the first graduates of El Paso High School. She was the first person to teach music in the public schools in Texas and El Paso and was the first woman to own a bicycle in El Paso. Brown is also one of the original creators of the El Paso International Museum which later became the El Paso Museum of Art.
Brown was born in Missouri on December 17, 1871. [1] She was raised in Sherman, Texas, where she took music lessons at the North Texas Female College. [1] Brown's sister, Francis Moore, would later become a well-known pianist in New York. [2] Brown came to El Paso in 1886 with her family. [3] She served as a bridesmaid for Anne Buford, who married into the Magoffin family in 1887. [4] Brown was in the first graduating class of El Paso High School, and was one of the two graduates in 1887. [5] When she graduated, she went with her father to San Diego, California, where she received a second high school diploma from a high school there in 1889. [1]
She returned to El Paso again in 1890, a year after her father died. [3] She then began to teach music in the public schools and was the first person to do so in both El Paso and Texas. [3] Brown was the first woman to own and ride a bicycle in El Paso, Texas. [3] [6] She used the bike to get to the schools she taught at, pedaling through sand in some places. [7] [3] She taught music in the public schools until 1899. [3] She also wrote about the history of music in El Paso. [2]
Brown married William R. Brown, a railroad agent for the Santa Fe railroad, on June 29, 1898. [3] [8] Her husband was a cornet player and also enjoyed music. [1] Kate Moore Brown continued to play piano and organ and also organized various musical groups in El Paso. [3] [9]
Brown joined the El Paso Woman's Club in 1899. [7] She was the head of the El Paso Woman's Club's music department. [1] Brown was also a member of the first board of directors for the El Paso School for Girls (Radford School) in 1910. [10] Also in 1910, Brown became the president of the Woman's Club and held meetings at her home. [1] Later, she was on the executive board of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. [11] In 1917, she formed an auxiliary of the Woman's Club devoted to music, called the MacDowell Club, named after Edward MacDowell. [1]
Brown became the second woman elected to the El Paso School Board in 1921. [1] She recalled later that the Ku Klux Klan attempted to infiltrate politics within the board, and she said, "I worked hard as a board member and stood for justice." [12] She later became the state chair of Child Welfare in 1923. [13] Brown helped originate the idea for the El Paso International Museum (later known as the El Paso Museum of Art) in 1925. [14] [1] She served as an organizer for the museum and worked as a chair on the board. [15] In 1933, she was the president of the Pioneer Women's Association. [16]
Brown's husband died in 1934. [3] Kate Moore Brown inherited his estate. [17]
Brown was president of the El Paso Symphony Association and helped get the organization incorporated in 1937. [18] Brown also served on the board for the El Paso Public Library. [19] She was president of the library board in 1936. [20]
Brown collected the fans and shawls belonging to notable women from around the world. [21] Brown donated her collection of over 300 fans to the El Paso International Museum. [5] She died on March 28, 1945. [22]
Olga Bernstein Kohlberg was a Jewish Texan philanthropist and founder of the first public kindergarten in Texas. Kohlberg served as president of the Woman's Club of El Paso for two terms, one from 1899-1900 and the other from 1901-1902. Kohlberg lived in the historic Sunset Heights neighborhood.
Lucy G. Acosta was a Mexican-American activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). She was a political appointee under various mayors of El Paso, Texas. She was elected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1987. The Lucy G. Acosta Humanitarian Awards were named in her honor, and have been presented every year since 1993.
The Woman's Club of El Paso was founded in the late nineteenth century, and during that time was the only woman's organization in El Paso, Texas. The Woman's Club also allowed women in El Paso to become involved in community service and activism. The building which is the home for the club is located on 1400 N. Mesa Drive, and was erected in 1916. The club, now a non-profit organization, traces its official origins back to 1894, and continues to provide an "educational and cultural center for its members." The building is registered in the National Register of Historic Places.
Rosa Ramirez Guerrero is a Mexican American educator, artist and historian from El Paso, Texas. She was the founder of the International Folklorico Dance Group. Guerrero has also been active with work in the Catholic Church, and has been called the "Dancing Missionary" in religious circles. She is also known for her multicultural dance programs which have been performed around the country and featured in a film called Tapestry. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame and has an El Paso school named after her.
Betty J. Ligon was an American journalist. She is best known for being the longtime entertainment editor on the El Paso Herald-Post.
Kimie Yanagawa Sanematsu (Tokuyama) was an American educator. In 1953 she was the first Japanese person to be naturalized in the United States since 1922, and the first in El Paso, Texas. News from the time period also stated that she was the first Japanese woman to be naturalized in the United States under the McCarran immigration act.
Drusilla Elizabeth Tandy Nixon was a community activist and music educator in El Paso, Texas.
Birdie Alexander was an American educator and music teacher. She was a charter member of the Music Supervisors' National Conference. Alexander is credited with laying the foundations of music education in the Dallas public schools.
Ruth Ellen Kern was an American lawyer, community leader and feminist. Kern was an early pioneer in law for women in El Paso, Texas. She was also outspoken against myths regarding violence against women, sharing her own experiences with rape with the public. Kern was an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and a law suit she filed for an inmate led to El Paso County to construct a new jail with better conditions for inmates.
The International Museum of Art is a museum in El Paso, Texas housed in a historic residence designed by Henry C. Trost. The home was the W.W. Turney residence built for state legislator, lawyer, and rancher William Ward Turney in 1908. The International Museum of Art shares history with the El Paso Museum of Art, which occupied the Turney building until 1998. After it moved into its new building, the International Museum of Art reopened in 1999.
The 1935 Sun Bowl was the inaugural edition of the Sun Bowl, an American football postseason bowl game. Played on New Year's Day of 1935, the game featured high school teams and was sponsored by the El Paso Kiwanis club. The following year's game, the 1936 edition, was the first Sun Bowl matchup between college football teams. The game has been held annually in El Paso, Texas, from 1935 to the present.
Jan Herring was an American artist. Herring was based in Clint, Texas and showed her work around the United States. Herring began showing her work in 1950 and worked as an instructor at the El Paso Museum of Art. She was inducted into the El Paso Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.
Cynthia Weber Farah Haines is an American photographer and writer. She is best known for her work on documenting Southwest writers and art and life in El Paso, Texas. Farah has also taught at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) where she was involved with the university's first film studies program.
Alicia Rosencrans Chacón is an American politician. She is best known for several firsts in El Paso, Texas. Chacón was the first woman elected to El Paso government when she became county clerk in 1974. She was also the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Ysleta Independent School District Board and as an alderman in El Paso. She later became the first woman and first Hispanic person in 100 years to serve as a judge for the El Paso area. A school, the Alicia R. Chacón International School is named after her.
Maude E. Craig Sampson Williams was an American suffragist, teacher, civil rights leader, and community activist in El Paso, Texas. In June 1918, she formed the El Paso Negro Woman's Civic and Equal Franchise League and requested membership in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) through the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), but was denied. Williams organized African-American women to register and vote in the Texas Democratic Party primary in July 1918. She was one of the founders and a charter member of the El Paso chapter of the NAACP, which was the first chapter in the state of Texas. Williams served as the vice president of the El Paso chapter from 1917 to 1924 and remained active in the NAACP until her death. Williams played a significant role in the desegregation of Texas Western College in 1955, which was the first undergraduate college in Texas to be desegregated by a court order other than that of the Supreme Court of the United States. Midwestern University (now known as Midwestern State University was previously ordered to desegregate in 1954 by the SCOTUS immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Myra Carroll Winkler was an American educator and was the first woman to hold elected office in El Paso County.
Belle Christie Ferguson Critchett was an American social activist and suffragist. Critchett was active in Texas, especially in El Paso and was part of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA). She worked with suffragist Maude E. Craig Sampson to increase opportunities for Black women voters. Later, she became president of the El Paso chapter of the League of Women Voters.
A. Louise Dietrich was an American nurse, activist and suffragist who was based in El Paso, Texas. Dietrich came to El Paso in 1902 and stayed to help with the typhoid fever epidemic. In El Paso, she started the first nurses' registry in Texas and also created the El Paso Graduate Nurses Association. She worked at several hospitals both in El Paso and in other cities. Dietrich was one of the organizers and founders of St. Mark's Hospital in El Paso. Dietrich was active with the El Paso Equal Franchise League and later became a president of the Texas League of Women Voters (LWV). Dietrich served as secretary in both the Texas Graduate Nurses Association and the Texas Board of Nursing (BON). After Dietrich's death, she was honored by the Texas House of Representatives for her lifetime of work in nursing and other activism.
Alzina Caroline Allis Orndorff DeGroff was an American businesswoman who was involved in civic causes in El Paso, Texas, and West Texas.