Bessie Lou ALFORD (CLOWER)

The following bio was taken from page 88 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Bessie Lou was the third child of E.B. and Ella Overton Alford, Sr. She was born in Overton but moved to Henderson with her parents when she was very young. She was educated in the Henderson School system and attended Kidd Key College in Sherman and North Texas State Teachers College in Denton. Bessie Lou taught school in Rusk County at Bunker Hill, Carlisle, and Marshall; then she became connected actively with the Mayfield-Alford Company of Henderson. Because women rarely had positions of responsibility in business in those days, Bessie Lou carried her name on business forms and officially signed her name “B.L. Alford.” She joined with her brothers in a Ford dealership. She became a “lady” Ford dealer in Paris, Texas with her brother Jesse. She bought stock in the Marshall Building and Loan Association, the first in this part of Texas. Miss Alford met Ben David Clower on the train during one of her many business trips to Washington, D.C. A whirlwind romance ended in the marriage of Bessie Lou Alford and Mr. Ben D. Clower, an attorney of Tyler, Texas. Mrs. Clower was active in public affairs, a member of the Methodist Church, and a member of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce. Her keen interest in young girls prompted her to donate land south of Henderson for the Camp Fire Lodge, honoring her niece, Mary Alford Coleman. The last years of Bessie Lou’s life were spent in Henderson where she and her husband came to live during the last days of his illness. After Ben’s death, she spent the remainder of her days in the little house on the corner of Webster and High Streets. Written by Virginia Knapp