Lifestyles
Texan historian rewarded with historical maker
By Tarleton State University
Apr 19, 2008

STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS— A State of Texas historical marker will be dedicated at the grave of historian Mary Jane Gentry in Strawn, Texas, on Sat., April 19, at 11 a.m. She passed away in 1996 and was laid to rest in the family plot in Strawn’s Mount Marion Cemetery.

Gentry is credited writing the first history of Thurber, now a ghost town, in 1946 and also for co-authoring “The Story of Texas,” a seventh-grade history textbook in 1961.

T. Lindsay Baker, Tarleton State University historian and museum director for the W.K. Gordon Center, prepared the application necessary to receive an official state historical marker. The Palo Pinto Historical Commission approved the plaque and it received funding from local sources in Strawn.

Gentry grew up in Thurber and attended the public schools there before earning degrees from Ranger College and the University of Texas. After graduation, she taught in the San Angelo and Odessa public schools as well as at Odessa College.

Gentry wrote her history of Thurber between 1939 and 1946, which served as her master’s thesis. While working on her master’s Gentry was fortunate to have the esteemed historian Walter Prescott Webb supervising her thesis work.

Gentry’s history of Thurber provided the basis for many of the exhibits at the W.K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, located in Thurber.

The museum is located off Interstate 20 at exit 367 between Fort Worth and Abilene. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Monday. For more information about the museum, call (254) 968-1886.