Laura Burleson Negley is still here. She lived 83 very full years before dying in 1973, but her name and legacy formed during her time as a Texas icon will be carried forth in Plum Creek, home to the new Laura Burleson Negley Elementary School.
The boys and girls of Negley Elementary may or may not currently understand the significance of Mrs. Negley, whose ashes were scattered across Plum Creek and whose gravestone is located at the Plum Creek Golf Course. At 38, she became the first woman from Bexar County elected to the Texas Legislature. In the early 1910s, she supported the women’s suffrage movement and in fact gave a public speech on the topic in Washington, D.C., in 1912 at one of the largest pro-suffrage rallies of the time.
The Negley family has long been associated with Kyle and Hays County. Mrs. Negley and her husband maintained a home in Mountain Ranch City (now known as Plum Creek), and the family is a long-time contributor to the Kyle community. The Negley brand—called the 7-Up-Bar—can be seen mounted on the new Kyle Parkway overpass. She never used the brand on cattle the family owned—instead, she had collars with name tags made for the animals.
Born in Austin in 1890, Mrs. Negley was the great-granddaughter of Gen. Edward Burleson, the second vice president of the Republic of Texas and the leader of the Texas Rangers in the Battle of Plum Creek. Her grandparents were Edward Burleson, Jr., and Lucy Emma Kyle Burleson, sister of town-founder Fergus Kyle. Her father was the prominent Albert Sydney Burleson, an eight-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Postmaster General in President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet.
Mrs. Negley’s mother, Adele Lubbock Steiner Burleson, was a well-known author and playwright.
But all of the prominence did not spare Mrs. Negley’s life from great tragedy. Her son, Richard, a combat pilot, died in 1942 while fighting the Japanese in World War II. Another son, Albert, was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese during the 1943 Bataan Campaign, and died in early 1945 of an illness while still in captivity. The brothers were honored posthumously and designated as bomber aces.
A third son, William, graduated from law school at the University of Texas and spent his war years in Venezuela, playing an important war-time role while working for Standard Oil Company.
“This is all terribly exciting,” says Negley Principal Will Webber on the school’s opening. “This is a dream come true, really, having an opportunity to open a school. Laura Burleson Negley was a very special woman, and it’s an honor to have her name associated with our school, and our school district.”
Having Negley’s name on the elementary school is certainly fitting, as she supported education throughout her term in the legislature. She also supported the fight for women’s rights and equality for all people during her tenure, and throughout her life. Following her term in the legislature, Mrs. Negley and her sisters endowed a professorship at the UT Law School and also endowed scholarships at Phillips Exeter Academy in honor of her two lost sons
The boys and girls of Negley Elementary may or may not currently understand the significance of Mrs. Negley, whose ashes were scattered across Plum Creek and whose gravestone is located at the Plum Creek Golf Course. At 38, she became the first woman from Bexar County elected to the Texas Legislature. In the early 1910s, she supported the women’s suffrage movement and in fact gave a public speech on the topic in Washington, D.C., in 1912 at one of the largest pro-suffrage rallies of the time.
The Negley family has long been associated with Kyle and Hays County. Mrs. Negley and her husband maintained a home in Mountain Ranch City (now known as Plum Creek), and the family is a long-time contributor to the Kyle community. The Negley brand—called the 7-Up-Bar—can be seen mounted on the new Kyle Parkway overpass. She never used the brand on cattle the family owned—instead, she had collars with name tags made for the animals.
Born in Austin in 1890, Mrs. Negley was the great-granddaughter of Gen. Edward Burleson, the second vice president of the Republic of Texas and the leader of the Texas Rangers in the Battle of Plum Creek. Her grandparents were Edward Burleson, Jr., and Lucy Emma Kyle Burleson, sister of town-founder Fergus Kyle. Her father was the prominent Albert Sydney Burleson, an eight-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Postmaster General in President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet.
Mrs. Negley’s mother, Adele Lubbock Steiner Burleson, was a well-known author and playwright.
But all of the prominence did not spare Mrs. Negley’s life from great tragedy. Her son, Richard, a combat pilot, died in 1942 while fighting the Japanese in World War II. Another son, Albert, was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese during the 1943 Bataan Campaign, and died in early 1945 of an illness while still in captivity. The brothers were honored posthumously and designated as bomber aces.
A third son, William, graduated from law school at the University of Texas and spent his war years in Venezuela, playing an important war-time role while working for Standard Oil Company.
“This is all terribly exciting,” says Negley Principal Will Webber on the school’s opening. “This is a dream come true, really, having an opportunity to open a school. Laura Burleson Negley was a very special woman, and it’s an honor to have her name associated with our school, and our school district.”
Having Negley’s name on the elementary school is certainly fitting, as she supported education throughout her term in the legislature. She also supported the fight for women’s rights and equality for all people during her tenure, and throughout her life. Following her term in the legislature, Mrs. Negley and her sisters endowed a professorship at the UT Law School and also endowed scholarships at Phillips Exeter Academy in honor of her two lost sons
