ROBERTSON, LEXIE DEAN (1893–1954). Lexie Dean Robertson, teacher and poet, was born in Lindale, Texas, on July 25, 1893, the daughter of Alexander Green and Lena (Ansley) Dean. Her parents were both teachers. She grew up in Canton and married J. F. Robertson on August 16, 1911, while both were students at North Texas State Normal College (now the University of North Texas). The Robertsons taught in Texas and Oklahoma for the remainder of the decade, and Lexie took additional courses at the universities of Oklahoma and Chicago. In 1920 they settled in Rising Star, where Mrs. Robertson spent five years as a school principal. She earned a B.A. degree from Howard Payne College in 1925 and left teaching to devote herself to full-time writing. Her poems appeared in various newspapers, anthologies, and magazines, including Kaleidograph,Southwest Review, Holland's Magazine, Country Gentleman, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies' Home Journal. Much of her poetry was of the "homespun" type, and many of her early poems were concerned with the effect of the oil industry on West Texas communities. Her first collection, Red Heels, went through ten editions, and I Keep a Rainbow won the 1932 book award of the Poetry Society of Texas. Mrs. Robertson was poet laureate of Texasqv from 1939 to 1941, the first native-born Texan to hold the title. She was a member of the Poetry Society of America, a charter member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and president of the institute in 1944. She was also an active clubwoman and poet laureate of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. She served as vice president of the Poetry Society of Texas, and during her writing career she won every prize the society offered. After her death the society established the Lexie Dean Robertson Award in her honor. Robertson published four volumes of verse: Red Heels (1928), I Keep a Rainbow (1932), Acorn on the Roof (1939), and Answer in the Night (1948). She was a Methodist and Democrat and had no children. She died in Abilene on February 16, 1954, and was buried in Rising Star.
Sam Hanna Acheson, Herbert P. Gambrell, Mary Carter Toomey, and Alex M. Acheson, Jr., Texian Who's Who, Vol. 1 (Dallas: Texian, 1937). Margaret Royalty Edwards, Poets Laureate of Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1956; rev. ed., 1966). Texas Authors File, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
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William E. Bard, "ADAMS, WALTER R.," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fad08), accessed March 19, 2015. Uploaded on June 9, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.