Thank Goodness this Bette invented one of the most valuable home and business tools in the world!
Born in 1924 in Dallas, Texas, Bette Graham dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen and went to secretarial school.
By 1951, she had worked her way up to the position of executive secretary for W.W. Overton, the Chairman of the Board of the Texas Bank and Trust.
It was at this time that she and her colleagues at the bank began experiencing trouble with the new IBM electric typewriters.
Tired of having to retype entire pages because of one small error, Bette determined to find a more efficient alternative.
Little did she know her frustration would lead to her becoming one of the most famous women inventors of the 20th century.
The impetus for Bette's breakthrough came as she
observed painters decorating the bank windows for the holidays.
Rather than remove their mistakes entirely, the painters simply covered any
imperfections with an additional layer. This quick-thinking woman mimicked
their technique by using a white, water-based tempera paint to cover her typing
errors.
When the other secretaries realized how well the invention worked, they flooded her with requests for their own supplies. The now-famous woman inventor sold her first batch of "Mistake Out" in 1956, and soon she was working full-time to produce and bottle it from her North Dallas home. Her son Michael – who would later achieve fame as a member of the pop group The Monkees – and his friends helped to fill the growing number of orders for Mistake Out.
Bette continued experimenting with the makeup of the substance until she achieved the perfect combination of paint and several other chemicals. The refined product was renamed "Liquid Paper" in 1958, and, amid soaring demand, Bette applied for a patent and a trademark that same year.
Bette's Liquid Paper Company experienced tremendous growth over the next decade. By 1967, the company had its own corporate headquarters and automated production plant, and sales were in excess of one million units per year. In 1975, she moved operations into a 35,000-sq. ft. international Liquid Paper headquarters building in Dallas. Bette sold the company to Gillette Corporation four years later, just six months before her death in 1980.
This AMAZING woman saw a need for a better way that would help us all and we are forever thankful for Bette for helping us cover up our mistakes on paper if not in life.
