The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

MURRAY, WILLIE ROBERTA EMERSON (1908–1963).

Willie Roberta Emerson Murray, a musician and a music educator, served as Oklahoma’s twelfth first lady from January 8, 1951, to January 10, 1955. Her husband, Johnston Murray, was Oklahoma’s fourteenth governor, and Willie Murray became the twelfth first lady because two previous governors were unmarried while in office. She was born on September 27, 1908, in Weatherford, Oklahoma, to Frances Ella Clark and William (or Willis) Collins Emerson, a salesperson. The Emersons had moved to Weatherford from Tennessee in 1903.

In her youth Willie Emerson became an accomplished musician. While attending high school, she performed piano and vocal solos in county and state scholastic contests, winning first, second, and third prizes. A popular pianist, she was invited to entertain at numerous women’s and men’s clubs, and she performed at the Memorial Day service held in Weatherford in May 1924. She graduated from Weatherford High School in May 1924 and continued her education in Weatherford at Southwestern State Teachers College (now Southwestern Oklahoma State University), graduating in May 1928. She was active in numerous clubs on campus, serving as vice president of two of those organizations.

She participated in musical arts and theater production for most of her adult life. In March 1929 she served as a judge at the county scholastic meet in Hinton, Oklahoma. The following month she attended the Oklahoma Federation of Women’s Music Clubs in Tulsa. By October 1929 she was directing plays for the Universal Producing Company of Fairfield, Iowa. In 1929 she directed Corporal Eagen in Norton, Kansas, and in Watonga, Oklahoma, and later that year in Weatherford she was cast in a production of Aunt Lucia directed by the Universal Producing Company.

Emerson’s main interest, however, lay in music, and she accepted employment as a professor of piano at Southwestern, her alma mater. She continued her study in Denver, attending an eight-week course of piano instruction conducted by noted French pianist Elie Robert Schmitz in 1930. She received private lessons as well as “classes in technique, interpretation, ensemble playing and chamber music.” At the end of her class work she received the highest mark on the written technical report, and Schmitz admitted her to his council of teachers who were allowed to teach his work. In June 1930, for her outstanding accomplishments as a musician, she was elected to the Ladies’ Music Club of Oklahoma City. On December 3, 1932, she was elected vice president of the fourth district of the Oklahoma Federation of Women’s Music Clubs, and from 1944 to 1946 she served as the club’s president.

Willie Emerson’s interests also extended to politics. As vice-chair of the Custer County Democratic Party, she attended a Democratic state convention, where she met Johnston Murray, an attorney. They married on May 1, 1933, in the Methodist Episcopal church at Weatherford. By 1940 the couple lived in Tonkawa, where Johnston Murray worked as a manager of a natural gas company and also practiced law.

Son of former Oklahoma governor William H. and his wife, Mary Alice Hearrell Murray, Johnston Murray ran for governor in 1950. Willie Murray actively campaigned for her husband’s election. During his term, from 1951 to 1955, first lady Willie Murray furnished the Governor’s Mansion with products made in Oklahoma. She traveled around the state promoting items made by Oklahoma artisans, and she displayed their work in the mansion’s third floor ballroom for visitors to view. Willie Murray redecorated the Governor’s Mansion, choosing paint and fabric colors in Pacific blue, coral, and various shades of green. Under her instruction flower beds and shrubs were added to the mansion’s ground. She was the first occupant to open the mansion to the public for tours. In February 1951 she became an honorary member of the Ohoyohoma Club, composed of wives of current and former legislators.

At the end of her husband’s term Willie Murray ran for governor. At that time the state constitution prohibited successive gubernatorial terms, and her husband could not succeed himself. Her campaign speeches focused on labor, industry, agriculture, education, juvenile delinquency, and women in politics. She lost the election of 1954 to Raymond D. Gary. Consequently, Oklahoma did not have a woman as governor until Mary Newt Copeland Fallin took office on January 10, 2011.

At the end of her husband’s term Willie Murray ran for governor. At that time the state constitution prohibited successive gubernatorial terms, and her husband could not succeed himself. Her campaign speeches focused on labor, industry, agriculture, education, juvenile delinquency, and women in politics. She lost the election of 1954 to Raymond D. Gary. Consequently, Oklahoma did not have a woman as governor until Mary Newt Copeland Fallin took office on January 10, 2011.

Willie Murray lived in Oklahoma City for the rest of her life and taught music. The Murrays divorced in 1956. At age fifty-four, on April 4, 1963, Willie Roberta Emerson Murray died of cancer at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. Prior to her death, in March 1963 the Oklahoma Senate had passed Senate Resolution No. 20, praising her as a talented first lady who had “made many unique and outstanding contributions to the advancement of the civic and cultural life of her beloved Oklahoma.” Like her mother-in-law, Mary Alice Hearrell Murray, Willie Emerson Murray’s body also lay in state in the Oklahoma Capitol. Funeral services were held at Crown Heights Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Oklahoma.

Linda Wilson