Willie Durham House, an extraordinary person, devoted public servant, and gifted administrator, played a pivotal role in the establishment of two of Waco’s most essential institutions — free public schools and the Waco-McLennan County Library.

Born in 1856 in Austin County, Willie Durham was the only child of Dr. and Mrs. M.S. Durham. When the Durham family moved to Brenham, she attended schools there until her marriage at age 16 to J.A. House. The couple had one child, a daughter, Lolabel.

Whether J.A. died or deserted the family is unknown, but with a young, precocious daughter to support, Willie entered one of the few fields open to women in those days: teaching. Possessed with a great thirst for knowledge, House, in 1878, somehow cobbled together the resources to enroll in the University of Nashville’s Peabody Normal School which had been established to empower teachers.

Upon graduation, the Texas State Board of Education hired House to administer Summer Normal Services (meaning all education and administrative services that go on during the summer months) in Mineola, Victoria, Marshall, and Lampasas. She returned briefly to the classroom in Tyler, then the fledgling Waco public school district hired her in 1884 as the principal of the city’s third ward school. She was just 28 years old. Within a few years, House became vice president and secretary of the Texas State Teacher’s Association, founded in 1880 to further the cause of education in Texas.

From this point forward, House’s name appears hundreds of times in the Waco newspapers, including The Day, The News-Tribune and others — she’s everywhere, speaking, encouraging, raising money for schools, spearheading the campaign for women to vote and working with businessman Isaac A. Goldstein to bring a Carnegie Library to Waco.

When A.A. McGregor was elected superintendent by the School Committee of the Waco City Council, he vigorously crusaded for public schools — Black and white — continually going to the press and city council meetings to push for better salaries, facilities, and working conditions for teachers and administrators. The city council eventually fired McGregor in 1888. Her fellow teachers and administrators strongly supported House for the position. The Council, however, wanted another male superintendent.

On June 3, 1888, Waco newspaper The Day reports that the Council was reluctant to support House’s appointment because she was a woman. We don’t know what changed the Council’s mind, but on July 13, a follow-up article appears, heralding her election to the position and commending her on her qualifications for the role.

House immediately set to work in the Waco schools — improving record-keeping, tackling maintenance issues, expanding the curriculum, and encouraging and equipping students, staff, and faculty alike in a school district that was one of the largest in Texas. She was also the lowest paid superintendent of schools in Texas, making about $2,000 a year, while many other superintendents made closer to $2500.

It was too good to last. When the City Council deeded authority over public schools to the newly formed Waco School Commissioners in 1893, House was summarily replaced and demoted to campus principal. Leading the charge against House was Waco businessman Edward Rotan, who headed up an opposition “ticket.” House returned again to the classroom.

Within a year, the all-male school board declared that only men could be principals in Waco schools. The following year, it decreed that all female teachers must be single and that, should they marry, it would be a declaration of resignation from Waco schools.

In 1904, when the beautiful Carnegie Library opened on Twelfth Street and Austin Avenue, House accepted a position as Waco’s first full-time librarian.

Once again, House encountered opposition, this time from the Waco City Council. Despite the city’s pledges of support with the original grant application, the Council provided minimal support to the library, publicly dismissing it as a playground for children and a storehouse of cheap novels. Consequently, House was again forced to spend much of her time fundraising.

Eventually, she had had enough.

In 1907, House accepted a position with the filing and stenographic division of the Workman’s Compensation Commission in Brooklyn and rapidly rose through the ranks to the position of “chief” of the division. A Waco Times-Herald article from June 7, 1914, reported that her promotion was to “the most important position held by a woman in business circles of New York state.”

When House died in July 1926 at the age of 69, her obituary appeared in both The Brooklyn Eagle and New York Times, as well as different Waco newspapers. Her daughter Lolabel House Hall, Ph.D., an educator respected in both the Waco and New York school systems, brought her mother’s remains to Waco for burial in Oakwood Cemetery and read from a framed letter of tribute from the very commissioners that once fired her, calling her a “remarkable woman.”

When Lolabel herself died in May 1946 after a lifetime of advocating on behalf of education and women’s rights, The Waco Tribune-Herald cited both women in an accompanying editorial:

With her mother, the late Mrs. Willie Durham House, a strong personality well-remembered by old-timers, Mrs. House was one of the early workers for women’s suffrage. It is due to the activity of those two women and many other like them that women are able to vote in this country. We accept the fact of women’s votes without question now. It is hard to imagine the campaign that had to be waged by women like Dr. [Lolabel] Hall and Mrs. House to make that fact come to pass.

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During World War II, Elizabeth “Bettie” Mae Scott joined a small group of women who took to the skies in support of the United States war effort. Scott served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a program that trained female aviators to perform critical flying duties within the United States while male pilots fought overseas.

Bettie Mae Scott spent her early life in Monrovia, California, a city in the greater Los Angeles area. She was born on July 26, 1921, to Frank L. Scott and Virgel (Cochran) Scott. Although relatively little documentation survives about her early years, the 1940 U.S. Census indicates that she grew up in a household with three siblings (two brothers and one sister) and her father served as the Police Chief in Monrovia. Scott remained in the community where she was raised until leaving California for Texas to begin training with the Women Airforce Service Pilots, marking the first time she had relocated away from home.

Bettie’s story emerged during a period of dramatic change in the American workforce. As masses of men departed for military service, an estimated 6.6 million women entered the labor force, taking on occupations that had previously been closed to them. Aviation proved no exception to these national trends, and the U.S. Army Air Forces soon faced a shortage of domestic male pilots.

Operating from August 1943 to December 1944, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program represented a significant development in the professional advancement of female aviators in the United States. However, its creation did not mark the beginning of women’s participation in aviation. Rather, WASP emerged from decades of effort by women seeking greater access to flight training and professional aviation opportunities. Applicants were required to already hold pilot licenses; many having trained through the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program established in 1938. Bettie Scott herself had earned a civilian pilot’s license before applying to the program. Administratively, WASP consolidated two earlier organizations, the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), into a single program. Its formation also reflected broader global developments, as both Great Britain and the Soviet Union had already incorporated women into wartime aviation roles, placing pressure on the United States to expand women’s participation in military aviation.

The WASP program was highly selective. More than 25,000 women applied, but only about 1,830 (roughly seven percent) were accepted for training at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. Of those accepted, 1,074 ultimately completed the program and served as Women Airforce Service Pilots, an achievement Bettie shared with just over a thousand other women. Such an accomplishment was comparable in selectivity to being accepted into an Ivy League university.

Affectionately known as “Scotty” among her fellow pilots, Scott trained for several months at Avenger Field before graduating on April 15, 1944. Upon graduation, the Army Air Forces assigned her to Blackland Army Airfield and Waco Army Airfield in Waco, Texas, where she served as an engineering test pilot. In this role, Bettie flew aircraft that had recently undergone maintenance to determine whether they were safe to return to operational service.

Test flying ranked among the most dangerous responsibilities in the WASP program because mechanical failures and structural defects could emerge only after an aircraft returned to the air. Many WASP pilots faced similar risks while ferrying newly manufactured aircraft between factories and military bases or towing aerial targets for training. By the time the program ended in 1944, thirty‑eight WASP pilots had lost their lives in service.

The inherent dangers of test flying became a tragic reality for Bettie on the morning of July 8, 1944, when Scott took off to test‑fly a recently repaired BT‑13 Valiant at Waco Army Air Field. The BT‑13 was a basic training aircraft used by the Army Air Forces to prepare new pilots for more advanced combat planes. Shortly after the aircraft lifted off the runway, it climbed too steeply and stalled at an altitude of roughly one hundred feet. The plane rolled and crashed upside down, killing Scott instantly as a result of severe head trauma. Investigators later determined that structural defects in the aircraft’s tail assembly had caused the sudden loss of control.

For many years after the war, the contributions of the WASP pilots remained largely unrecognized because the federal government classified them as civilian employees rather than military personnel. As a result, pilots who died on duty were not provided funeral or body transportation benefits, nor were they recognized as fallen service members. When Bettie Scott died in 1944, her fellow WASP pilots collected money to return her body to her family in California, sending her home in a simple pine coffin. Scott was later buried in her family’s plot at Live Oak Memorial Park Cemetery in Monrovia, California, near her parents. Only decades after the WASP program ceased operation did the federal government formally acknowledge the women’s service. In 1977, Congress granted WASP members veteran status, and in 2010 the pilots of the program were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their contributions during World War II.

Today, Bettie Mae Scott is remembered as part of a pioneering generation of women in military aviation. During wartime pilot shortages, WASPs stepped into roles that had previously been closed to them. They undertook missions despite the known dangers of the work and the knowledge that they lacked the official status and benefits afforded to military personnel. Women like Scott accepted the risks by pursuing their ambitions as aviators while contributing their skills to the wartime needs of the U.S. military. Their service expanded opportunities in aviation and helped shape the future of women’s participation in the United States armed forces.

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Baylor University was the first coeducational university in the South, and only the second in the country. Even so, the education women received at Baylor for many years was fundamentally different than the men’s. Women stayed within the bounds of the more “feminine” degrees such as education or music, and access to on-campus organizations was severely limited. Female students were held to high standards and kept under close supervision by the Dean of Women. They had to adhere to a strict dress code (superintendents could remove undesirable clothing from student’s closets), attend Sunday school and church services every Sunday, sign out any time they left campus, observe a strict curfew, and keep good grades in order to be allowed to date, ride in a car, or leave campus.

As women’s rights activists made headway in the early twentieth century, coed institutions received more and more female applicants. Baylor was no exception. In the 1920s, Baylor received so many applications from women that they had to turn them away due to a lack of space. At the time, Georgia Burleson Hall and a few small annexes were the only women’s residential spaces on campus, and women who were not from Waco were not allowed to live off campus due to university administration’s desire to keep them protected and out of trouble. The male students, by comparison, were not subject to the same levels of supervision as the women and were trusted to live off campus. The ones that did live on campus were housed in then-brand-new Brooks Hall.

Despite being advertised as better than the accommodations at other universities, Burleson Hall was cramped, leaky, outdated, and only housed around 200 women, and the annexes could hold around 200 altogether. In the mid-1920s, the number of women enrolled at Baylor was around one thousand. In light of this space issue, President Samuel Palmer Brooks began planning the addition of a new women’s dormitory. The Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, having observed the piety and Christian attitudes of Baylor students, took an interest and pledged to help the university raise funds for this new building. They advertised in Waco newspapers to secure donations from the community, and sororities on campus aided them with fundraisers.

In 1928, a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the site of the new dormitory on the corner of Seventh and Speight. Baylor alumna, renowned author, and Columbia University professor Dorothy Scarborough addressed the spectators at this event. Scarborough emphasized the importance of remembering the exceptional women in Baylor’s history and made a commitment to be present at similar events in the future. Baylor administrators overseeing the project hoped that the groundbreaking might serve as a reminder to the community that the project was still underway, and hopefully inspire them to resume their donations, which had decreased significantly.

Woman’s Memorial Dormitory, named in honor of the Woman’s Missionary Union, was finished in 1930 and cost approximately $350,000. Securing funding for this project was no small feat, as at this time the country was suffering in the early days of the Great Depression. At this time, the building could house 245 women, and boasted a dining hall, a chapel, a study hall, and two banquet rooms. On October 15, 1930, the university suspended classes for two hours so that faculty, staff, and students could attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new dormitory. President Brooks, speaking at this ceremony, thanked the Woman’s Missionary Union for making the idea for the new dormitory into a reality, and further thanked all the women of Texas for their contributions to the project. Mrs. F. S. Davis, president of the Woman’s Missionary Union, also addressed the attendees, speaking of her hopes that the women of the dormitory would grow in their faith and be strong, Christian leaders in their community. “The fervent prayer,” she said, “that wells up from the heart of the Women’s Missionary Union today is that ‘our daughters may be as polished cornerstones after the similitude of a palace.’ For truly you, our daughters, are our glory and our crown.”

In 2005, Memorial and neighboring hall Alexander became home to the university’s Honors College Living and Learning Community, or HC-LLC (often called the Hick-Lick), with Memorial housing the women and Alexander housing the men. Four years later the university upgraded the community to the status of residential college. The Honors Residential College is known across campus for its tight-knit community, goofy traditions, and, in the words of one former Baylor professor,its “common love of uncommon things.” In 2023, the university renovated both Memorial and Alexander, updating facilities, rooms, and common spaces, as well as adding the new Carona Family Commons, a two-floor shared common area connecting the two buildings.

Woman’s Memorial Dormitory, now simply called Memorial Hall, has been a welcoming home away from home to Baylor women for almost 100 years. Memorial was instrumental in improving women’s access to education at Baylor when it was built, and the impact it and its founders had on the university is still visible.

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Among 1920s literary enthusiasts, Dorothy Scarborough was a familiar name, especially in her home state of Texas and in New York, where she taught at Columbia University. Initially well-known among Baylor University students for her popular English and journalism classes, she gained national prominence after the publication of several of her books—most notably the controversial book The Wind. A trailblazing female scholar, her work spanned from novels to folklore, from short stories to poetry. 

Emily Dorothy Scarborough, or “Dottie” as she was known to friends and family, was born on January 27, 1878 in Mount Carmel, Texas. Her parents were Mary Adelaide and John Bledsoe Scarborough, who was a Confederate veteran and prominent lawyer. The family moved to Sweetwater, TX in 1882, hoping the drier climate would help Mrs. Scarborough’s health, but five years later they moved to Waco so that the children could attend Baylor. Dorothy’s brother George attended law school at the University of Texas and became a successful playwright, and her sister Martha attended Baylor and Vassar and published three books. Like her siblings, writing was in Dorothy’s blood. 

Dorothy Scarborough received her bachelor’s in English in 1896 at age eighteen and her master’s in English in 1899, both from Baylor, and she returned to the university as a faculty member in 1905, teaching English. While teaching at Baylor, she spent her summers continuing her graduate studies at the University of Chicago, and she also taught a popular Sunday School class for college men at First Baptist Church Waco. In 1910 Scarborough took a year of leave to attend the University of Oxford, although they did not yet award degrees to women. After she returned, she taught the first journalism course available in the state of Texas. She moved to New York in 1916, where she finished her doctorate at Columbia University, and her dissertation, “The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction,” became a standard reference work on the topic among English scholars and students. She was hired immediately upon graduation at Columbia, where she would spend the rest of her career teaching creative writing focused on short stories and novels. Baylor awarded her an honorary doctorate in literature in 1923 in recognition of her accomplishments.

Scarborough’s first publication was a collection of poems entitled Fugitive Verses, which she published in 1912. Her first novel, In the Land of Cotton, which was published in 1923, examined the sharecropping system in Texas. Two years later she published three of her most famous works: The Unfair Sex, On the Trail of Negro Folksongs, and The Wind. The Unfair Sex was a partially autobiographical serialized novel based on her experiences at Oxford. She was disappointed with the profound sexism she encountered and the lack of provisions for women’s education at such a prestigious institution, which purported to value truth and learning above all else. On the Trail of Negro Folksongs was her first book-length venture as a folklorist. She had developed an interest in the topic growing up, and she conducted fieldwork and literary research to compile the folksongs found within this work.

The Wind is the most well-known of her writings, partially because of the controversy that it sparked. She first published it anonymously to garner publicity, but the novel’s negative portrayal of frontier life in West Texas ruffled more than a few feathers among Texans who accused the unknown author of slandering their state. The book is set during a severe drought in the 1880s in West Texas, and it portrays a female protagonist who is eventually driven mad by the wind and sand she encounters. The novel presents a stark contrast to the characterization of West Texas by most male authors at the time, who generally favored a more romanticized view of the West and of frontier life. After much speculation about the author, she finally revealed her secret and the controversy softened. The book was made into a silent movie starring the popular actress Lillian Gish in 1928, solidifying its impact on broader American culture. The book’s enduring legacy derives in part from its feminist overtones: Scarborough not only challenged a romanticized characterization of the American West by narrating a woman’s perspective of frontier life, she critiqued the scarcity of options for women outside of marriage and called attention to the sexual violence that many women silently endured. 

Scarborough published several more novels, including Impatient Griselda, Can’t Get a Redbird, and The Stretch-Berry Smile, all set in the South, but none surpassed her 1925 publications in popularity. She began compiling another folksong collection, called A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains, which contained Appalachian folksongs, but she died of a heart attack in her sleep on November 7, 1935. The book was published posthumously in 1937. 

Dorothy Scarborough’s success as both professor and author inspired many young people to imitate her. Numerous students, particularly female students, looked to her as their inspiration to pursue writing or to pursue a doctorate at a time when very few women did so. Her writing was not without fault; it reflected a nostalgia for the rural South that at times perpetuated racial stereotypes, but this nostalgia was frequently tempered by her questioning of gender norms surrounding women’s education and marriage. Scarborough’s legacy still lingers today in the state of Texas, and particularly at Baylor: a legacy as teacher, scholar, and writer.

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In Prohibition-era New York City, a dose of Texas flair enlivened the city’s roaring nightlife. Larger than life in personality and style, actress “Texas” Guinan commanded the nightclub circuit with her saucy wit. She sensationalized her life, blending fact with fantasy. The child of Irish immigrants, Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan was born on January 12, 1884, outside of Waco, Texas. Her family ran a grocery business while Guinan attended Sacred Heart Academy, where classmates knew her as Mamie. Even in childhood, Guinan craved mischief, pranking local shop owners and irking her teachers. She also cultivated skills in roping and riding, which she’d draw upon later in her film career. Combining her cowgirl skills with the musical training she received in Chicago, Guinan started performing in Wild West theater acts around the turn of the twentieth century. She also entered into a brief marriage with Denver cartoonist John J. Moynahan before following her show business dreams to New York City. Guinan struggled working as a chorus girl in NYC before becoming a regular on the vaudeville circuit and performing in musical shows like The Hoyden. She did this work for about a decade until, in 1917, a talent scout offered her the opportunity for a Hollywood career starring in silent westerns. So she rode off to California and into a new phase of her career. During her time in New York, Guinan acquired the nickname Texas. The moniker’s nod to her roots and its lone star bravado made it an apt name for an emerging star of western gunslingers. Beginning with The Wildcat (1917), Guinan portrayed heroines in films like Little Miss Deputy (1919) who possessed both strong wills and real gun skills. In 1921, she started her own production company in response to Hollywood’s ageism and beauty standards negatively impacting her film career. As a producer, Guinan displayed the same independence and ingenuity as her onscreen characters. She actively engaged in publicity, rights distribution, and cast actors that fit her films, rather than using a set company. Texas Guinan Productions made a few films such as Texas of the Mounted (1921) that are no longer extant before ceasing operations in 1922. Her silent film career on the decline, Guinan returned to New York and the stage.

During the 1920s, Guinan fashioned herself onstage and off as the grand dame of NYC nightlife. She personified the flashy and excessive spirit of the age. Guinan appeared on Broadway, but it was her rapier wit and brassy style that earned her the job of emcee at the Beaux Arts Hotel. It was a rare position for a woman in the 1920s. Starting in 1924, she reigned over several clubs and speakeasies—such as the El Fey or the 300 Club—first with mobster Larry Fay and then on her own. Guinan took to greeting patrons with the phrase, “Hello, Sucker.” It became her trademark, coming with enough sass to entice patrons to purchase more bootleg liquor. Effortlessly working a room, Guinan comedically blended entertainment and allure. She even turned her continuous arrests for violating Prohibition into a show, complete with music and photo ops. When federal or local authorities shut down one of her clubs, she simply opened up another. Audaciously flagrant, Guinan styled herself and her clubs to be the center of New York’s nightlife. Capitalizing on her reputation, she again took to the screen and the road.

In the late 1920s and early 30s, Guinan created touring shows and appeared in a few films. Her already mercurial fortunes declined with the Great Depression. Guinan’s autobiographical talkies like Queen of the Night Clubs (1929) were not commercial successes, but these films nevertheless kept her profile before the public. She traveled domestically with her club’s shows, but Europe rebuffed her attempt to present her act internationally. Her incendiary character prevented her 1931 European tour from obtaining an audience. Nevertheless, she brazenly turned the experience into a popular satirical show: Too Hot for Paris. It was this life on the road, however, that eventually toppled the imposing Guinan.

She died on November 5, 1933, in Vancouver from either amoebic dysentery she contracted in Chicago or ulcerative colitis. Guinan’s memorial at Broadway’s Campbell Funeral Church brought 12,000 people in to pay their respects. The service exhibited the brash glamour the late star embodied. Initially buried in White Plains, New York, her remains were later reinterred in a family plot at Calvary Cemetery in Queens. The rascally cowgirl from Waco had sauntered her way to big city stardom.

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On a hot Atlanta evening in July 1988, Ann Richards emerged from deep in the heart of Texas to address the Democratic National Convention as the keynote speaker. The Texas treasurer’s rousing and pointed speech—sprinkled with her characteristic one-liners—brought her national attention. It served as a turning point in her political career. Only three years later, Richards stood at another podium, this time in Austin, taking her oath of office as the forty-fifth governor of Texas.

Born Dorothy Ann Willis on September 1, 1933, in Lacy Lakeview, Richards developed an interest in civic engagement and public speaking from a young age. As a student at Waco High School, where she graduated in 1950, Richards actively participated in the debate team and in the Girls State (and Nation) program where she practiced politics in a mock government. That fall, she entered Baylor University on a debate scholarship. While at Baylor, she married fellow Wacoan David Richards and continued to hone her oratory skills. She and David graduated in 1954.

Moving to Austin expanded the young couple’s involvement in politics. While her husband studied law, Richards earned a teaching certificate from the University of Texas and worked as a social studies teacher at Fulmore Junior High School. In the mid-1950s, they also canvased for progressive candidates like Ralph Yarborough and honed ideas amongst the Young Democrats. After her husband took a job practicing labor law in Dallas in 1957, Richards kept house, raised their four children, and maintained her involvement in politics. During the 1970s, now back in Austin, the Richards’ home served as a hub for progressive Texas politics and the place where Ann organized political campaigns for female candidates like Sarah Weddington. Still, she never intended to run for office herself.

However, after David declined running for Travis County Commissioner, their friends urged Ann to consider. Relying on the networks and skills she spent years cultivating, she routed the longtime incumbent and took office in 1976. She served another term as a county commissioner before her 1980 election as Texas State Treasurer. During her two terms at that post, Richards streamlined Texas’ financial system. Her political acumen, oratory skill, and straightforwardness garnered the notice of the Democratic National Committee who invited her to give the keynote speech at the 1988 convention. Richards appeared on the rise.

But her political ascendency obscured a rapidly disintegrating personal life. For decades, alcohol lubricated the social and political circles in which Richards ran. Her heavy drinking turned her caustic wit mean and, while appearing to make her the life of the party, also endangered herself and others. In 1980, family and friends staged an intervention. Within the day she traveled to an out-of-state rehab facility. While improving many aspects of her life, Richards’ newfound sobriety could not repair the longstanding fissures within her marriage. She and David separated by the end of the year, divorcing in 1984. Whether astute recognition or self-fulfilling prophecy, Richards’ initial fears about the negative affect of her political career on her marriage came to pass. She spoke with candor about both experiences for the remainder of her political life.

With her rousing performance on the Atlanta dais in 1988, Richards opened a new avenue for herself. The political capital she garnered enabled her to mount a successful campaign for governor of Texas. While in office, Richards diversified holders of government appointments so they more accurately reflected the state’s demographics. Controversially, she banned the concealed carrying of handguns and limited access to assault weapons. Fiscal, education, and prison reform constituted significant portions of her agenda. Though popular, Richards lost in her 1994 reelection bid to George W. Bush.

After she left office, Richards worked as a political consultant, continuing to campaign for liberal causes and candidates. She also served as visiting professor at UT–Austin and Brandeis University. Richards died on September 13, 2006, after a brief battle with esophageal cancer. The spirited debater from Waco made her mark on Texas politics. Her election as state treasurer in 1980 marked the first time in half a century that a woman held a state-level position. To date, she remains the last Democratic governor of Texas and the first duly elected woman to hold the office.

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Rebecca Pines Shelton Sparks, often referred to as Mother Sparks, was a laywoman from Missouri who moved to Texas with her family before the Civil War. Sparks married a Confederate veteran of the Texas Calvary and a Texas Ranger, Thaddeus Pinckney Sparks, and the Sparkses moved to McLennan County in the 1870s. There, Thaddeus Sparks accumulated wealth as a saddle-maker, and secretary of the Waco Improvement Company and First National Bank. Towards the turn of the century, Waco was booming with industrial business in which men such as Thaddeus Sparks prospered, and a growing number of women wanted a chance to be a part of it. The Waco workforce took a turn as women left rural areas because of poor crop yields and low cotton prices and moved to the big city to pursue new opportunities as businesswomen.

Because of her great enthusiasm for missionary work through the Methodist Church, Sparks used her skills and family money for the greater good. Most women who moved to the city were inexperienced, received a small salary, and could not pay the rent for higher-priced boardinghouses, so Sparks stepped in to meet that need. In 1900, Sparks established a cooperative home for middle-class working women in Waco at 1118 Franklin Avenue. Sponsored by the Methodist Mission Federation, the Rebecca Sparks Co-operative Home’s mission was to provide women with safe, chaperoned surroundings that allowed them to comfortably transition into the workforce. Students of Baylor University also stayed under the roof.

Local citizens furnished the rooms of the house and rules allowed twenty-four residents to stay under the roof at one time. Residents paid thirty-six cents per day and were required to clean their living spaces in order to stay in the cooperative home. The tenants shared spaces and socialized in a common area that included a piano, record player, games, and reading materials. The young women grew close and spent time together making candy, sewing, sharing magazines, and hosting parties in which they could invite their friends. All activities took place under the supervision of a deaconess of the Methodist church.

Mismatched chairs and impersonal decorations filled the home, suggesting that the house had an atmosphere formed by a variety of people rather than a single family. Over the years, furniture became shabby from use, repairs needed to be made, and furnishes of the house needed to be touched up to provide the residents with comfort and to ease their minds from the workday. Methodist women of Waco held fundraisers in the form of country fairs to raise funds to update the home.

The Methodist Church sponsored the cooperative home, and even though girls were not required to be a part of the Methodist denomination, religious training was an emphasis of the home’s mission and a requirement of the residents. Religious leaders adorned the mantle in the common room to remind tenants that Sparks’s home was a Christian one. Every girl attended church and Sunday school, led prayers before meals, and took turns leading evening prayer services known as Vespers. These communal activities led the women of the house to live together harmoniously.

Sparks fell ill in 1919 and passed away in 1920, and the home was renamed the Rebecca Sparks Inn. The cooperative home continued to provide a space for working women sixteen years after Sparks’s death. The facility closed in 1936, and the home’s lumber was taken for the construction of Rebecca Sparks Memorial Methodist Church in Bellmead, Texas, to honor Sparks, who provided a haven for countless young women who called the place home.

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Pauline Pipkin Garrett studied music at Baylor in the 1920s, but then the family business came a-calling. Under her leadership, W. P. Pipkin Drugs became one of the Southwest’s largest independently owned drugstore chains.

After graduating from Baylor University in 1923 with a BA in music, Pauline’s interests turned to the family business—W. P. Pipkin Drugs located at 418 Elm Avenue. Seeking to one day take over the business from her father, Pauline enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where she excelled. The Waco News-Tribune on December 21, 1924, reported that she made the “highest grades in her class in a competitive examination.” The article also stated that the college had three thousand men and only one hundred women enrolled at the time.

In 1926, Pauline received a BA in pharmacology, became a licensed pharmacist, and joined her father in his business. William Pipkin was the first drugstore owner in Waco to hire women. In a recollection published in the May 26, 1957, Waco Tribune-Herald, Pauline recalls a customer asking, “‘You reckon that’ll do—a girl selling cigars?’ He [W. P. Pipkin] said, ‘They’ll do better than some of these jelly beans.’ They called the boys ‘jelly beans’ in those days.”

Pauline worked in several departments, including the soda fountain where she washed dishes. In doing so, she got to know more about her employees and work practices. This would help in later years when she took over management after her father’s death in 1935, and full ownership when her mother, Irene, died in 1953. After Pauline took over full operations, the Pipkin chain then grew from three to seven stores and was recognized nationally as an award-winning seller of Rexall products—Pipkin’s main product line.

Life wasn’t all about work for Pauline—she did maintain her love for music. While in pharmacy school, according to the December 1924 Waco News-Tribune article, “She made several vocal and cello records for the Victor Company at Camden, N.J.” Back at home, she played the cello in various Waco orchestras. In 1930, she was given the opportunity to go to Europe and play with a symphony.

Pauline married Waco attorney Barney Garrett on January 15, 1936. They purchased one of Waco’s most distinctive homes, the Cottonland Castle at 3300 Austin Avenue. She dedicated one of the rooms to music, filling it with a grand piano and several string instruments.

 Pauline passed away at home in 1963. Her husband sold Pipkin Drugs to a firm in Garland, Texas, and it became a Rexall drugstore. By 1967, all but one of the former seven Pipkin stores had closed, with the last location at 3900 Bosque Boulevard.

In an age where business opportunities for women were limited, Pauline Pipkin Garrett became a successful pharmacist and expanded her father's modest drug store business into a thriving enterprise with seven locations throughout Waco.  

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According to founding Junior League member Margaret Barclay Megarity, mid-twentieth-century service opportunities for young women in Waco were limited to society luncheons and church-sponsored activities primarily run by older women. Frustrated and desiring to organize more public service avenues, Megarity invited nine women to her home on December 12, 1935, to discuss creating a new organization.

The fruits of that first gathering were almost immediately tangible. Thirty women attended the first official meeting of the Junior Service League of Waco on January 1, 1936. These founding members drew up a constitution for an organization meant to provide young women with a better understanding of their community, its needs, and its problems. Within one month of drawing up the constitution, the organization began its work in the community.

Children have long served as the focus of the service organization. The first function of the Junior Service League raised $36 (equivalent to nearly $615 in contemporary currency) to provide children’s shoes for Waco’s needy families. In the near century of service which followed, the organization pursued projects such as establishing a children’s symphony, providing resources for clients of Child Protective Services caseworkers, volunteering in children’s hospitals, and providing a playground in Cameron Park.

Though certainly proud of the projects accomplished by the league, leaders often spoke of the organization’s goal as being centered upon training volunteers to become active members in their community. In 1946, the Waco service group incorporated with the Association of Junior Leagues International, becoming the Junior League of Waco. From this time forward, new provisional members underwent an intensive, year-long course in community volunteer service. As early as 1959, the course consisted of two main parts: a history of the Leagues of America, and a history of Waco. The first portion consisted of lectures on the history of the leagues and working in Fort House, the Volunteer Service Bureau, and the Strecker Museum. The second half of the course consisted of lectures on Waco’s background and development, as well as on welfare and public health. Provisional members also toured the city, visiting school administrations, city commissioner meetings, and school board meetings. Information and skills gained from these training measures allowed members to serve the community in the most effective manner.

Despite its focus upon children, the Junior League remained involved in other aspects of the Waco community, as well. In 1956, the group purchased and restored Fort House, one of the historic homes dating back to the Civil War. The organization ultimately decided to turn the deed over to the Waco Society for Historic Preservation (later Historic Waco Foundation) after realizing the home’s historic value. The Junior League later purchased and restored another home, the Clifton House. Today, this historic house (noted on the Waco History map) continues to serve as the Waco chapter’s base of operations.

The reach of the Junior League’s programs is vast. Over decades of service, the group has aided numerous organizations throughout Waco such as the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children, Mission Waco, the Waco Independent School District, the Waco Hippodrome, Compassion Ministries, and many others. Today, the Junior League continues to serve the local community through its dedication to providing well-trained volunteers desiring to work for the good of the community. 

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Though not uncommon to late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century cities, red-light districts were regarded as areas of ill repute where madams and prostitutes worked outside the law. Yet in 1889, Waco—a city lauded for its multitude of educational institutions and churches—became only the second city in the United States to legalize such an area. This district, known as the Reservation, or sometimes as Two-Street, brought in thousands of dollars of revenue to the city while serving as a source of controversy for many years.

Waco’s 1871 charter differed slightly from that of most Texas cities. Rather than completely outlawing prostitution, the Waco charter included a provision for the city government to suppress or regulate bordellos. For many years, government officials attempted to control prostitution and, in 1884, implemented laws to completely suppress it. However, these actions proved in vain, and after just five years of attempting to eliminate prostitution, the city of Waco did a complete about-face on its strategy.

The new policy legalized prostitution in a small area just off of downtown between Washington Avenue, North Third Street, Jefferson Avenue, and the Brazos River, providing the city with more control over where and when such actions could take place. The policy also segregated the area by race, and prohibited drinking within its limits. Prostitutes were required to sign the Bawdy House Register and pay a $10 licensing fee every three months. Each woman also had to pay to be examined by a city doctor twice a month. Madams paid fees for each bedroom of the house they ran, as well as additional fees for each resident of the house. Any woman recorded on the Bawdy House Register seen outside of the Reservation could be charged with vagrancy and fined up to $200.

Though legal, the Reservation and its occupants were looked upon with disdain by the rest of Waco. Since the women could not walk to the city to shop for fear of being charged with vagrancy, they traveled in enclosed carriages directly to the stores, where a clerk either met them at the curb with the goods they required or sent them to the back of the store to keep them out of public sight. Children of prostitutes were shunned as well. In 1893, a city wide vote banned children born of women listed on the Bawdy House Register from Waco’s public schools. Itinerant evangelists often spoke against the evils of prostitution in Waco but rarely reached out to help the actual women themselves. For instance, when J. T. Upchurch established a rescue society to aid prostitutes in Waco, the local Methodist church kicked him out of the congregation.

Abandonment and financial desperation led many women to the Reservation. In the nineteenth century, a divorced or pregnant-out-of-wedlock woman struggled to find a career and often was abandoned by her family and friends. As many as one hundred women worked in the Reservation during its heyday. Some, such as renowned Waco madam Mollie Adams, became enormously wealthy and successful. In one case, a madam named Della Smith even left the Reservation, married a grocer, and lived the rest of her life in respectable society. Yet for many of these women, life in the Reservation ended in drugs, alcohol, and violence.

By some estimates, the city made up to $12,000 of revenue per year from the licensing and regulatory fees. Yet when the federal government sent a message to the city council in 1917 warning the city to shut down the vice district, the decision to do so was made quickly. With the inevitability of the US entering the Great War looming ahead, Waco could either close the Reservation or pass up on the possibility of gaining a military base.

Despite the construction of Camp MacArthur, traces of the Reservation—which in many ways distinguished Waco from other cities—remained. However, the remnants of the district slowly whittled away in the 1920s as bordellos closed, economic interests shifted elsewhere, and immigrants fleeing violence at the Texas-Mexico border moved into the neighborhood to fill the emptied houses. That transition marked the unofficial end of the contentious vice district which once brought both controversy and economic profit to the city.

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Efforts of civic leaders in the late nineteenth century to provide greater educational opportunities established Waco as the “Athens of Texas.” This reputation was later preserved in the early to mid-twentieth century through the dedication of educators such as Gladys Allen, whose research and charitable giving left a lasting legacy in the city. 

Gladys Allen was born on June 2, 1897, to Sam L. and Florence (Morehead) Allen at Crawford, Texas. After going to Crawford public schools throughout her childhood, she attended Mary Hardin-Baylor College and Baylor University. Following her graduation from Baylor University in June of 1918, she served as the principal of a three-teacher school at Delia, Texas, in Limestone County for a year. Allen then moved to McLennan County in 1919 and joined the Waco school system and taught English. However, when her mother passed away in 1934, she resigned from the teaching profession in order to take over the management of the family home for her father.

Although she officially resigned from educational work in the 1930s, Allen did not leave the field entirely. In 1941, she became a member of the Baylor Board of Trustees and served her first term until 1947. She later served a second term from 1951 to 1953. During that time, she conducted research in order to disprove notions concerning perceived gender inequalities at Baylor University. This work played a large part in the university reclaiming admittance to the national chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), an organization which promotes educational opportunities for women and girls.

In addition to her educational efforts, Allen was highly involved in the Waco community. She attended Seventh & James Baptist Church while residing in Waco, where she also taught college students and Sunday school classes from 1928 to 1947. She served as president of Waco Young Women's Christian Association for ten years. She was also an active member of Waco Garden Club, Waco Garden Council, and the local branch of AAUW. During her many years of service to Waco and Baylor University, she resided at 1917 South Ninth Street (as indicated on map). She passed away on May 18, 1953, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Allen’s will furthered her desire to make a lasting difference on the Waco community. She bequeathed assets to Seventh & James and established three endowed scholarships at Baylor University: the Sam L. Allen Scholarship for business majors, Florence Morehead Scholarship for home economics majors, and Gladys Allen Scholarship. In order to honor her commitment to the university, city, and community, Baylor University named Gladys Allen Hall on the Baylor campus in her honor in 1956.

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Mary Maxwell Armstrong’s intelligence, insight, and perseverance made her an influential figure in twentieth-century Waco. Her determination combined with her love for great literature aided in the establishment of a world-renowned library on Baylor University campus.

Mary Maxwell Armstrong was born at Buena Vista, Texas, on September 21, 1882, the tenth child of Baptist minister Wilder Richard Maxwell and his wife Melissa Anne (Williams) Maxwell. After attending Baylor University and receiving a bachelor of arts degree, she completed additional coursework for one summer at University of Chicago. When she finished her coursework, Mary began to teach at East Texas Baptist Institute (ETBI) in Rusk, Texas, where her brother served as president. In 1902, she met her future husband, Andrew Joseph Armstrong, who taught at ETBI while pursuing his PhD. On January 24, 1911, Mary married A. J. Armstrong and they moved together to Georgetown, Kentucky, so he might resume his professorship at Georgetown College.

The Armstrongs shared an impressive dream of amassing a collection of the works and materials of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and establishing a library. In the fall of 1912, A. J. Armstrong accepted a full-time position at Baylor University, and the couple moved to Waco in order to realize their goal of establishing the library. Together, the Armstrongs raised the funds to construct a building to house the materials. They also toured Europe twenty-nine times in search of materials to add to the collection. When her husband fell ill, the bulk of the consulting work with the architects, builders, designers, and stained glass experts during the construction process fell to Mary.

The dedication of Armstrong Browning Library on December 3, 1951, realized the Armstrongs’s dreams. The library is widely considered to be the largest accumulation of Browning materials in the world. Mary’s influence is strongly evident in the design of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Salon and many of the ornate stained glass windows visible throughout the building.

Following the death of her husband in 1954, Armstrong served as director of the library for five years. After retiring in 1959, she served as a special consultant for her successor, Dr. Jack Herring, and kept an office in the library. She resided at 116 North Thirtieth Street (as indicated on map) until she moved to Pennsylvania in September of 1966 in order to reside with her son's family.

Though often noted primarily for her work on the Armstrong Browning Library, Mary M. Armstrong was a highly involved member of other areas of the community as well. She taught freshman English at Baylor University for a number of years and also served as a member of Baylor Round Table, Daughters of the American Revolution, and as an honorary member of Waco Woman's Club. She passed away on September 1, 1971, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was buried in Waco's Oakwood Cemetery.

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Decades before American Idol made stars out of wannabes, Waco had its own hit-maker, Mary Holliday.

Holliday (1901-1969), believed to be the first female radio announcer in Texas, broadcast a thirty-minute youth talent show each Saturday for more than thirty years. She started in radio in 1925, working as a studio pianist at WJAD-AM, which became WACO-AM in 1927. The show launched shortly thereafter.

But the program — known as the "Jones' Fine Bread Kiddie Matinee Show" — proved so popular it was moved in 1932 to the Waco Theatre. It was broadcast there weekly until 1956.

In the show's heyday, Holliday would invite youngsters ages 5 to 14 who could sing, play an instrument or act to come two weeks in advance to audition for the show. Successful performers were given a slot in the program. If an act wasn't up to par, the ever-gracious Holliday would not dash the auditionee's hopes but rather suggest that they go home and practice some more.

One of the most famous alumni of Holliday's show is Hank Thompson, a Country Music Hall-of-Famer whose career has spanned six decades and who has sold more than sixty million records worldwide.

The young performers received free admission to Holliday's show, while audience members paid a quarter a head to get in. The children competed for humble cash prizes of fifty cents to two dollars.

Besides the variety show, Holliday was known for the talk show What's Doing Around Waco, which began as a fifteen-minute filler in 1938 and had expanded to an hour long show by 1950.

Holliday also was much in demand as a public speaker because of her many adventures overseas. 

"She took her radio audiences to France, England, Italy, Germany and other faraway places with her tape recorder," Holliday's July 7, 1969, Tribune-Herald obituary noted.

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Waco native Vivienne Lucille Malone-Mayes possessed a sharp mind with a resilient spirit to match. In an age where few women, let alone women of color, went on to become prominent figures in higher education, Malone-Mayes made her mark as an influential mathematician and inspiration to countless Baylor students.

Born in 1932, Malone-Mayes grew up with the harsh realities of racial prejudice. She first became aware of segregation as a preschooler when she mistakenly drank water from a whites-only fountain at the Montgomery Ward store on Fourth and Austin. Fearing for her daughter, Mrs. Malone pushed her to the appropriate fountain and then proceeded to teach the young girl how to distinguish the words white and black. As Malone-Mayes grew older, she learned that she could only frequent certain recreational spaces in Waco and that she would be denied service at larger retailers in Dallas such as Neiman-Marcus. However, Malone-Mayes did not let bigotry define her.

Raised by two educators, Malone-Mayes was encouraged to avidly pursue learning, and she excelled throughout elementary and secondary school. Malone-Mayes entered Fisk University at age sixteen after graduating from A. J. Moore High School in 1948. Malone-Mayes earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree within the next six years, switching from the pursuit of medicine to mathematics after meeting the influential Evelyn Boyd Granville. Granville was the second African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, and she served as an inspiration for Malone-Mayes. It was also during this time that Vivienne married her husband, James Mayes.

Despite Malone-Mayes’ two degrees and eight years combined teaching experience at Paul Quinn College and Bishop College where she chaired the math departments, the still racially segregated Baylor University refused to admit Malone-Mayes in 1961 for further graduate courses in mathematics. Never one to be held back from achieving her goals, Malone-Mayes applied to the University of Texas and completed her doctoral studies there. Today, Vivienne Malone-Mayes is recognized as the fifth African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in the field of mathematics.

By the time of her graduation, Baylor desegregated and hired Malone-Mayes as a full-time professor, making her the first African American faculty member at the university. Malone-Mayes dedicated over twenty-five years of service to Baylor. Students loved her and voted her as “Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year” in 1971.

Beyond working as a Baylor professor, Malone-Mayes belonged to a number of other mathematical organizations, often holding important positions. She was the director of the Texas section of the High School Lecture Program, director-at-large for the Texas section of the Mathematical Association of America, and a member of the board of directors in the National Association of Mathematics. Malone-Mayes also had the distinction of being the first African American elected to the executive committee of the Association of Women in Mathematics.

Additionally, Malone-Mayes actively involved herself in the Waco community. She made New Hope Baptist Church her home and acted as the church’s choir director for a time. She also served on several boards of directors, including: Goodwill Industries, Family Counseling and Children Services, and the Heart of Texas Region Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center.

Malone-Mayes was a trailblazer for African American women in higher education and had a heart to serve her local community.

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During World War II, Waco provided a place of refuge and hope of starting anew for many seeking refuge from persecution, such as Otto and Hilde Levy. As tensions escalated throughout Germany as a result of Nazi discrimination, Otto Levy and Hilde Rosenfeld were married in May of 1937 in Mannheim. Their wedding was held in a large dance hall, though few of their friends and family attended out of fear of attracting unwanted attention from the Nazis. In the months following their marriage, the Levys watched as “Jews Not Wanted” signs appeared in storefronts and as friends and neighbors began to disappear. The Levys decided to flee their home in Germany at the end of 1937 to seek refuge in the United States.

Strict immigration laws passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration made it difficult for European Jews to secure visas for passage to the United States during the 1930s. The Levys attempted several times to obtain a visa from relatives and friends who had already fled Europe but were initially unsuccessful. Just as they began to despair, the Levys’ friend Gretel Weiser offered to contact her great-uncle Fred Mailander in America on their behalf. He agreed to help the Levys and wrote a letter to the American consul in Germany in order to obtain visas for the couple.

The Levys were excited about the prospect of moving to an urban city such as Waco with a university and a population of 55,000. They hoped to begin a glove-making business similar to the one Otto worked in while in Germany. In addition to securing their visas, Mr. Mailander provided the Levys with a house and covered the cost of moving their furniture. Yet the Levys encountered more obstacles as they began their journey to the United States in 1937. The American consul initially denied Hilde’s passage on the basis of health issues but in the end made an exception for the young couple. The Nazi Party prevented the Levys from withdrawing money from their bank accounts, leaving them with eighteen dollars each for the entire trip. The Levys arrived in New York unable to pay their train fare to Waco. After receiving aid from the United Jewish Appeal Help Committee, the Levys finally reached Waco in August of 1938.

The Levys received a warm welcome in Waco from Mr. Mailander and several other Jewish members of the community, but they encountered difficulties in the beginning of their new lives. Hitler called back many of the boats from Germany, including the one with the Levy’s furniture. Their furniture and belongings did not arrive in Waco until October. On top of this, Hilde and Otto spoke only German, making communication difficult. Unable to start a glove business in Waco, Otto began working at Rainbo Bread, and Hilde worked at a women’s department store in order to make enough money to get by.

A few years later, several prominent Jewish women approached Hilde and encouraged her to take over a store on South Eleventh Street in the Bell’s Hill neighborhood and run a small grocery. In 1941, Hilde borrowed $54.50 from Cooper’s Wholesale Grocery and began selling everyday items such as coffee, canned goods, and kosher meats. At the recommendation of two of the first customers, the Levys named the store O&H Foods. The Levys began introducing foods and products that could not be found anywhere else in Waco after traveling to a fancy food convention in Chicago in 1946. Specialty items such as cheeses from Finland, chocolates from Holland, and imported beers from around the world became the staple of O&H Foods. After a devastating tornado tore through Waco in 1953, damaging the storefront beyond repair, the Levys reopened on North Twenty-Fifth Street, changing the name to O&H Rare Foods. 

Otto and Hilde believed that a strong work ethic and good personal relationships with their customers would set them apart from other businesses in Waco. In the early years, the store was open seven days a week, often from seven in the morning until eleven at night. Otto and Hilde knew all of their customers by name and remembered their exact sandwich orders. They treated their employees as family members, and their decision to retire in 1990 was very difficult. Although they could no longer run the store because of Otto’s health, the Levys were comforted knowing that the store was in the hands of long-time employee John Peters.

O&H Rare Foods officially closed on July 31, 1998, after nearly half a century of providing Texans with specialty grocery items. By the end of World War II, nearly 40 percent of O&H’s customers were located outside of Waco in areas such as Austin, El Paso, and Odessa. O&H Rare Foods offered glimpses of culture outside the United States for citizens who never left their small towns, while the Levys’ tireless dedication to customer service and innovation in the food industry made O&H Rare Foods a center of community for Wacoans.

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Temple Rodef Sholom has the distinction of being McLennan County’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation. 

Jewish permanent settlers made Waco their home in the mid-nineteenth century. For many years no organized congregation existed; however, Jewish families did gather together to celebrate Jewish festivals and holy days at worship services held in rented rooms. On November 9, 1873, Eureka Lodge No. 198, International Order of B’nai B’rith (a Jewish service and fraternal organization) was established. Lodge members resolved in 1879 to organize a formal congregation and to raise funds for the construction of a synagogue. Forty families founded the congregation of Rodef Sholom. Among its original leadership were prominent Waco businessmen such as Sam Sanger, of the Sanger Brothers mercantile empire, and Louey Migel, co-founder of the Goldstein-Migel department store. Rodef Sholom dedicated its first synagogue, located at 924 Washington Avenue, on August 10, 1881. By 1908, the growing congregation required a larger space and undertook efforts to replace their current structure with a modern stone temple. Famed local architect Milton W. Scott, responsible for the Dr Pepper building and First Baptist Church in Waco, designed the second synagogue. Completed in 1910, the second temple served the congregation until 1961, when once again spatial concerns necessitated the construction of a new synagogue.

Located near the intersection of Forty-First Street and Colcord Avenue, the current Temple Rodef Sholom is one of Waco’s most striking places of worship. Not unlike a towering tent, the sanctuary recalls the Biblical ohel moed (tent of meeting) in which Israel worshipped during the wilderness sojourn. The roof is sloped in such a manner that it reminds congregants of the kanfe ha-schechina (sheltering wings of God’s presence), a reoccurring theme in Jewish sacred lore. Even the temple’s roof shingles carry added meaning as they were fashioned to resemble the traditional shingle form used by Eastern European synagogues destroyed during the Holocaust. The southeast wall features a menorah (branched lampstand) as a soaring bas relief. Affixed to the main doors are twelve copper plates bearing the names and emblems of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The sanctuary is designed around the aron hakodesh (holy ark), a closed recess in which the Torah scrolls rest. Regarded as the holiest space of the synagogue, Rodef Sholom’s aron is elaborately ornamented. The doors of the aron feature six pairs of panels. Each pair of panels depicts holy images or symbols central to the Torah. At the height of the aron is the ner tamid (eternal light). Continuously lit, it symbolizes God’s living presence and the permanence of moral law. Just below the ner tamid stands a reproduction of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai.

 The Religious School area is structured to resemble a magen david (shield of David), a six-pointed star. This design recurs in the glass-enclosed Memorial Fountain area, with a bronze memorial tablet on the east wall.

A voluntary association of Jews committed to Liberal (Reform) Judaism, Rodef Sholom’s history is marked by a high level of community involvement and efforts towards ecumenism. Most of this civic engagement occurred at the lay (congregational) level. Member Issac A. Goldstein, concerned that many citizens did not have sufficient funds to purchase books in the late 1800s, established Waco’s first circulating library in the Goldstein-Migel store. He went on to serve as president of the Public Library Association of Waco from 1900 to 1920. Louey Migel made large financial contributions not only to charities related to Waco’s Jewish community but the YMCA, the YWCA, and the Red Cross. He was also a founding member of the Waco Working Boy’s Club. In the past thirty years, Rodef Sholom has been an active member of the Greater Waco Interfaith Conference, an organization designed to promote understanding and cooperation among the variety of faith traditions in Waco.

Women have always played important roles in Rodef Sholom’s congregational life. The Temple Sisterhood, founded in the early 1920s, has been charged with organizing service and cultural programs and financing the temple’s Religious School. In 2012, Rabbi Laura Schwartz Harari became the first woman rabbi to serve Temple Rodef Sholom.

Rodef Sholom is Hebrew for “pursuing peace” and it would seem that the civic-minded congregation has lived up to this title through service projects and participation in ecumenical efforts designed to bring together Waco’s greater community of faith.

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