Celebrities
Nicknamed the Queen of Tejano, her first album in 1990 was the first Tejano album to achieve Gold Record status.
Selena Quintanilla Perez
With a combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals, she is the most decorated American gymnast.
Simone Biles
She was named the greatest female athlete of the first half of the 20th century by the Associated Press.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
This witty political journalist's nickname for President George W. Bush was "Shrub."
Molly Ivins
She was the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major U.S. city and only the second female mayor of Houston.
Annise Parker
Born in San Antonio, this comedian used to sign off her television show with a tug of her ear.
Carol Burnett
She was the first player to be signed to the WNBA.
Sheryl Swoopes
She learned French so that she could attend flight school in France when no school in the U.S. would accept her because she was Black and a woman.
Bessie Coleman
A labor rights activist, she led 12,000 San Antonio workers, mostly Hispanic women, in the Pecan-Shellers Strike of 1938 to fight wage cuts.
Emma Tenayuca
She was the first African American woman to be elected to the Texas legislature and the first Black U.S. congresswoman to come from Texas and the South. She also served as governor of Texas for one day.
Barbara Jordan
Born in El Paso, in her later years, this Singing in the Rain actress was perhaps better known as the mom of Princess Leia.
She was the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Born in Rowena, Texas, she and her boyfriend were gunned down in Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker
She was the first woman journalist in Texas to receive the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Her articles helped to end decades of corruption in Duval County.
Caro Crawford Brown
She started her political career as a Travis County Commissioner.
Ann Richards
This Blues singer from Port Arthur was called Pearl by her friends.
Janis Joplin
She is the first artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with their first six solo studio albums.
Beyonce
She was the first Black woman to travel into space.
A civil rights activist and suffragist, she was one of the first Black women to vote in a Democratic primary in Texas. A Houston park is named in her honor.
Christia Adair
She was first woman to be elected to the Texas Legislature in 1922.
Edith Wilmans
This San Antonian native is far from a desperate housewife, she has her own foundation that helps Latinas build better futures for themselves through entrepreneurship.
Eva Longoria
A native Houstonian, she was the first African American actress to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Phylicia Rashad
While working as a secretary, she invented Liquid Paper. She later sold the company for $47.5 million.
Bette Graham
A native Houstonian, this television writer and producer is also an award-winning author whose books are often set in East Texas.
Attica Locke
After her husband was impeached, she ran for and was elected the first woman governor of Texas in 1924.
Miriam “Ma” Ferguson