DuVal Family Association

08/30/2025

Daniel Boone was among the white Kentucky settlers known as the Long Hunters, but many others belonged to this group.

08/06/2025

She is a DuVal descendent.

In the 1950s, Bette Nesmith Graham, a single mother working as a secretary in Texas, found herself frustrated by the minor errors that typewriters wrought and the lack of tools for correction. Amidst a world dominated by rapid office work advancements, her solution was beautifully simple yet revolutionary: Liquid Paper. Bette mixed her first batch in her kitchen blender, using a concoction of tempera paint and water. Her invention allowed typists to correct their mistakes, not by starting over, but by painting over them.

The road wasn't easy. Colleagues mocked her, and bosses doubted her, but Bette persisted. She refined the formula, eventually packaging and selling her "mistake out" from her home, balancing her roles as a mother and an innovator. As the demand grew, so did her business, and by 1979, she sold Liquid Paper to Gillette for $47.5 million.

Bette Nesmith Graham didn't just invent a product; she paved a path for women in business and innovation during a time when their roles were severely underestimated. She demonstrated that necessity, indeed, is the mother of invention.

Reflection can indeed be the mother of reinvention.



~Forgotten Stories

07/14/2025

07/09/2025