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 -- Grace Dupree Ridings was born on December 18, 1881 in Ivanhoe, Fannin County, Texas, the daughter of J. E. and Amelia Deupree. Grace graduated from Ravenna College and became a schoolteacher in Fannin County. She married Alfred Ridings, who later studied medicine in Kentucky. In 1917 the family moved from Bonham to Sherman. Grace was the author of two books of poetry, short stories and plays, and her poetry was widely published in magazines and newspapers. She served as president of the Dallas branch of the League of American Pen Women.
Hope Ridings was born on December 24, 1905, in Bonham to Grace Ridings and Dr. A. L. Ridings in a house the parents had rented from Dr. John Rayburn, Sam Rayburn’s brother. She was their only child. A. L. Ridings was a boyhood friend of Sam Rayburn. In a letter from Sam Rayburn to Amon Carter dated 1-27-1945, Speaker Rayburn says: “Hope was born in my brother’s home in Bonham. I have known her all her life.”
The Ridings family later moved to Sherman. Hope attended Austin College in Sherman and the University of Texas, and received a master’s degree in English from Columbia University in New York City. Returning to Texas, she became head of the English Department at Paris Junior College. She married Clarence Lee Miller in 1932 and they lived briefly in New York City before moving to Washington, DC in 1933. She was the society editor of the Washington Post from 1937 to 1944 and the editor of the magazine The Diplomat from 1954 - 1960. She was president of the National Women’s Press Club. She was a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.
In 1939 Eleanor Roosevelt went on a month-long trip which included visits to Dallas, Waco, Abilene and Sherman. The visit to Sherman, which was organized by Grace, was a favor to her daughter Hope. The evening began with an intimate dinner at the home in Sherman of Grace and Alfred Ridings. Guests also included the mayor and his wife and the First Lady’s secretary Malvina Thompson. After the dinner Ms. Roosevelt spoke to a crowd of 1,500. The event was officially sponsored by the Texas branch of the League of American Pen Women, of which Grace Ridings was president, and she introduced the First Lady.
After the death of Sam Rayburn in 1961 many tributes were placed in the Congressional Record. One was the following: “He became affectionately known to the nation as “Mr. Sam.” That happy designation came about this way: There were still at home in Bonham a rather large Rayburn family. There was unmarried Lucinda. Sam always called this sister, “Miss Lou,” even when he was speaking to her. The neighbors took to designating the brothers as “Mr. Tom,” “Mr. Jim,” “Mr. Sam,” and “Mr. Dick.” The custom spread over his congressional district as far as “Mr. Sam” was concerned. Hope Ridings Miller, a young woman from Sherman, came to Washington and became the writer of a social column. She began to refer to the Speaker as “Mr. Sam”, as she had always heard him referred to in her Texas home. Then suddenly, a decade or so ago, everyone seemed suddenly to realize how felicitous this appellation was. Henceforth he was to be “Mr. Sam.””
Grace Ridings died in August 1941. Hope Ridings Miller died on April 29, 2005. They are both interred in the family mausoleum in West Hill Cemetery in Sherman.
