Jessie Andrews

Jessie Andrews (1867–1919) was the first female graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in 1886. In 1888 she became the first female instructor at the university, teaching German for 35 years. A dormitory at UT Austin, a public park, and a rose, have all been named for her (see Death and Legacy).

Early life, education, and career She was born in 1867 to mother Margaret L. Miller Andrews and father Jesse Andrews, and was one of five children. Her father moved to Texas for his health in 1873, and her mother brought her and the other children in 1874. Her father died in 1875, when she was eight. She earned honors in mathematics, German, French and history, and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1904, as soon as a chapter was established at the university.

She taught for one year at Mrs. Hood's Seminary for Young Ladies in Austin from 1886–1887, and then in 1888 joined the UT Austin faculty.

She became the first woman member of the UT Austin alumni association, Texas Exes. She was active in the Arts League, the Y.W.C.A., and a group of university women that later became the Austin branch of the American Association of University Women. She taught Sunday School in a local Presbyterian Church.

Poetry and post-academic life She was a poet who once published a poem in The New York Times. In 1910 she published a book of poetry, Rough Rider Rhymes, and became the poet laureate of the Texas Women's Press Association. She also published a poem in honor of the first edition of Alcalde, the UT Austin alumni yearbook.

In 1918, after 35 years of teaching at UT Austin, she resigned, citing disillusionment with Germany during World War I. She and her younger sister Fannie (c. 1869–1960) ran Ye Qualitye Shoppe in Austin together. They were both listed as landscape painters.

Death and cultural legacy She contracted pneumonia in 1919, just one year after her retirement from the university, and died at age 52. The Briscoe Center for American History Manuscripts at UT Austin houses her archive. Andrews dormitory at UT Austin is named for her.