Dr. Grady Early, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, taught math and computer science at Texas State University for 29 years, serving briefly as interim chair of the newly-formed Computer Science department. After retirement, Early began researching his family history and gained some familiarity with various research tools: ancestry, familysearch, newspapers, San Marcos Record archives, findagrave and many more. This made it easy for him to segue into the histories of non-family members, which is how he began to write a story about Southwest Texas Normal in San Marcos, also known as San Marcos Normal, which is now Texas State University. This series will highlight the first staff at Southwest Texas Normal.
According to the 1907 Pedagogue, “Lucy Lee Burleson is possessed of many sterling qualities, arranged in numerical order. The students think she is a first-class book agent.”
In 1879, the first Normal in Texas opened in Huntsville. The skyline of Sam Houston Normal Institute was dominated by what became known as “Old Main.” Conceived by Prussian architect Alfred Muller, most of the design was left to pioneering Texas architect Edward Northcraft. There seems to have been a dispute over the integrity of the foundation, a situation which would replay in San Marcos when SWTN’s “Old Main” was under construction.
