A Joint Project of the Sam Rayburn House Historic Site and the Fannin County Historical Commission
Celebrating America 250 with Spotlights of Fannin County Citizens Who Participated In or Witnessed Historical Events
Fannin County, Texas -- Florence Fogle was born in Ivanhoe, TX, on September 23, 1916, to Fannie Blakey and Tim F. Fogle. She had three siblings. At the age of 10, Florence won first prize at school for a health essay writing and poster-making contest, beginning her writing career. She won another writing contest at age 13, and had several poems published while she was in high school. She had a letter of hers published in the 1948 edition of the book, We the People: The Yearbook of Public Opinion, and she provided a copy of the book to Sam Rayburn.
She was a student of the Correspondence School of the Newspaper Institute of America and worked as a reporter for the Sherman, TX, Democrat newspaper, but many of her poems, articles, and stories appeared in local newspapers and Dallas newspapers.
She was the Fannin County Treasurer for 28 years.
In her obituary, Florence was cited as the person who took the much-publicized photograph of President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman in Bonham, TX, for Sam Rayburn’s funeral in 1961, but she was never given photo credit.
Florence married Paul R. Keahey and had two children. She was a member of several groups including the George Blakey Daughters of the American Revolution, the D. Rowlett Chapter of Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Bonham Women’s Club, Iris Society of Texas, the Democratic Women’s Club of Fannin County, the Silver Haired Legislature, and local community groups.
Florence died on July 2, 2004, at the Northeast Medical Center in Bonham and is buried at Willow Wild Cemetery in plot K 449 6SE.
This information was obtained from the Fannin Co., Texas GenWeb ( txfannin.org. The Sam Rayburn House SHS presented this information at their 2025 Cemetery Walking Tour. For a copy of the 2025 Cemetery Walking Tour guide or for other information, contact the Sam Rayburn House at (903) 583-5558 or email Margo.McCutcheon@thc.texas.gov.
