Lucille Nance Jones
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(November 20, 1904 - December 1, 1977) Bessie Lucille Parker was born in Arkansas to Thomas M. Parker and Jessie (Lay) Parker. The family moved to Texas and in 1924, Lucille married George E. Nance (1896-1954), a Hallettsville native. Lucille and George settled in the Canyon area and established the Nance Hereford Ranch. By 1925, the ranch covered 6,000 acres and primarily dealt in cattle. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the Nance Ranch produced champion cattle and was nationally known as a leading purebred Hereford breeder. After George died, Lucille operated the ranch, but eventually she leased the land to others. In 1956, she married investment banker Lovell Leslie Jones (1899-1982). They decided to move into town and build a house in 1963, working closely with architect Norris E. Root, II, to retain their extensive antique collection. Each room was designed to accommodate specific furnishings. Lucille Nance Jones collected rococo-style items and art as she traveled around the world on vacations and to various livestock shows. Later in life, Lucille began to donate items to various museums and institutions, including many art pieces, antiques and a bronze longhorn steer to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum. In 1970, she donated more than 2,000 acres, including the headquarters of The Nance Ranch, to West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M University) to be used for agricultural education. After her death, she was laid to rest in Dreamland Cemetery outside Canyon next to her first husband George Nance. Through her influence as a rancher, businesswoman and art collector. Lucille Nance Jones established a lasting legacy in West Texas. (2020)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bessie Lucille Parker came to the Texas Panhandle and, with her husband George Nance, built the Nance Hereford Ranch into a nationally known purebred cattle operation spread across thousands of acres. After George's death she ran the ranch herself, remarried, and became a world-traveling collector of rococo art and antiques, even building a Canyon home designed room by room around her collection. Late in life she gave generously—art and antiques to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum and more than 2,000 acres, including the ranch headquarters, to West Texas State University for agricultural education.
Why it matters
Her life shows a 20th-century woman running a major ranch and shaping her region as businesswoman, collector, and philanthropist in a landscape long defined by cattle.
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Related people
- · Lucille Nance Jones
- · George E. Nance
Related events
- · Donation of Nance Ranch land to West Texas State University
Themes & tags
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