Inaugural Impressions
Emma Purser Gary (1907–92)
Emma Mae Purser was born in Willis, Indian Territory, on October 2, 1907. She was one of five children of Albert and Mary Purser. The family moved north to Madill, where Emma attended high school with Raymond Dancel Gary. Emma graduated valedictorian of her class and married Raymond in 1928. The couple had one son, Raymond Jerdy, and one daughter, Mona Mae.
Raymond initially worked as a teacher and entered politics in 1932 when he was elected superintendent of Marshall County schools. He subsequently established an oil and gas wholesaling company and purchased a ranch near Kingston. After serving in the Oklahoma Senate for fourteen years, he won a contested runoff election to become governor of Oklahoma in 1955.
Emma supported her husband’s political ambitions by providing for her family and working with women’s clubs and the Baptist Church. Once in the Governor’s Mansion, her projects included representing the governor at the opening ceremonies of the American Indian Exposition in Anadarko in 1955 and hosting the Oklahoma Semicentennial Exposition in Oklahoma City in 1957, which over 1.5 million people attended. She also participated in relandscaping efforts across the mansion grounds. The west rose garden was named in her honor.
Raymond never served in elected office again after his term as governor ended in 1959. The Gary family continued to prosper thanks to their ranch near Kingston, which encompassed approximately 4,000 acres by 1985. They remained generous as well, donating $200,000 and a tract of ranchland to the Baptist Church to construct a children’s home known today as Baptist Home for Girls. Emma died on May 15, 1992, and is buried alongside her husband at Woodberry Forest Cemetery in Madill.
Emma Mae Purser Gary, 1957
(2012.201.B1201.0345, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS)
