Mary Jane Gentry
Strawn, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Boston in 1912, Mary Jane Catherine Gentry became an accomplished educator, historian, author and world traveler. Her 1946 University of Texas master's thesis, written under supervision of Walter Precott Webb, was entitled "Thurber: The Life and Death of a Texas Town." Today, it is a classic in Texas cultural and social history, and still guides much of the continuing research and interpretation of that historic town. She also co-authored The Story of Texas, adopted as a seventh-grade history textbook and used by children throughout the state. Gentry taught in public schools at Thurber, Springer Gap, San Angelo, Austin and Odessa, and at Odessa College before passing away in Dallas in 1996. (2007)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Boston in 1912, Mary Jane Gentry became an educator, author, and historian whose 1946 University of Texas thesis on the coal town of Thurber—written under Walter Prescott Webb—became a classic of Texas social history. She co-authored The Story of Texas, a seventh-grade textbook used statewide, and taught in schools and colleges from Thurber to Odessa. She died in Dallas in 1996.
Why it matters
Her scholarship preserved the story of a vanished Texas industrial town and shaped how generations of schoolchildren learned their state's history.
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Related people
- · Mary Jane Gentry
- · Walter Prescott Webb
Themes & tags
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