Grayson County TXGenWeb

James Arthur Alexander
President of the Boy Scouts of American
organized a Grayson County Rural Youth Program 1951
Superintendent of the Woodmen Circle Home

James Arthur Alexander (August 5, 1891 - July 15, 1977) was born in Garland, Texas to Mr. and Mrs. James D. Alexander, who served as Justice of the Peace while living in Garland. James Arthur married the former Dora Tucker on February 2, 1917, in Garland. He was a farmer and owned Alexander's Men Store, retail clothing business, in Garland until 1939 when he moved to Sherman to become Superintendent of the Woodmen Circle Home. J.A. Alexander served as President and was a charter member of the Garland Rotary Club and President and secretary of the Garland Chamber of Commerce, as well as Mayor of Garland from 1936 - 1939, ten years after his brother George A. served as Mayor of Garland three terms, 1910 - 1912, 1914 -1915, 1918 - 1920.
Mr. Alexander retired as Superintendent of the Woodmen Circle Home in 1956 and established the J.A. "Hot" Alexander Real Estate firm in Sherman. He was a Paul Harris Fellow of the Sherman Rotary Club and was honored by the Sherman Rotary
Club in 1976 for completing fifty years of perfect attendance. He was a President of the Boy Scouts of American in Sherman and also served as President of the Sherman Chamber of Commerce, Texas Alfalfa Dehydrators' Association, the Grayson County Livestock Improvement Association, and the Texoma Exposition and Livestock Association.
Mr. Alexander was a member of the Dallas Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons, Grayson County Scottish Rite Association,
Helia Temple Shrine, North Texas Shrine Association, Patron of the Garland Eastern Star, and a sixty-three year member of the Garland Masonic Lodge. Among other activities, he organized a Grayson County Rural Youth Program in 1951, was a member of the Grayson County State Bank Board of Directors, and past president of the Sherman Board of Realtors and the Grayson Board of Realtors. He was a deacon of the First Baptist Church.

Mrs. Alexander assumed the duties as director of the home until it closed in 1962. During this time, she was active in the Sherman Parent Teacher Association. As a charter member of Altrusa, Dora M. Tucker was born February 6, 1893, on her father's farm between Garland and Rowlett. She was educated in the Dallas public schools and is a graduate of Trinity University. Before her marriage she was a teacher in the Whitewright schools. She married J.A. Alexander of Garland on February 2, 1917. She came to Sherman in 1939 with her husband to work with him as Hostess of the Woodmen Circle Home. Before coming to Sherman, she served as president of various civic and study clubs. She was especially active in church work, girls' club work, and took special interest as a leader in educational, social and civic movement in Garland. On Mr. Alexander's retirement as superintendent and director of the home in 1959, Mrs. Alexander has held all offices, including that of president twice.
She has served as chairman on all committees, delegate to district meetings, general chairman of the Christmas Pilgrimage for several years and chairman of the Heart Fund Style Show and Tea for many years.
During Word War II she was active as a USO hostess and involved in other volunteer service. She chaired the Teen Town committee that organized the first Youth Center in Sherman. She serves on the Board of the Sherman Girls Club and was instrumental in establishing the Sherman Girls Club. In 1977 Altrusa Club International of Sherman honored Mrs. Alexander for her many years of work and effort by presenting the Sherman Girls Club a $1,000 check in her name. She is a lifetime member of the City Council PTA.
She is affectionately known as "Missy" by the many children who were reared at the Woodmen Circle Home, who say she and her husband changed the home atmosphere in a short time from that of an institution to one of a real family home. She is active in the Salvation Army, Child Welfare and the First United Methodist Church of Sherman.
In the later years of his life, Mr. Alexander became active and interested in the Woodmen of the World. His belief in fraternalism and his loyal devotion to it greatly influenced his daughter, who had a profound respect for her father's opinions and ideals.

DORA ALEXANDER TALLEY
National President
Supreme Forest Woodmen Circle Ins. Co.
1934 - 1953
Sister of James Arthur Alexander,
Superintendent of the Woodmen Circle Home

Dora Alexander Talley, 73, our beloved National President, died Wednesday afternoon, February 25, 1953 in St. Francis Hospital, Miami Beach, Florida. Her death was attributed to cerebral hemorrhage.
Mrs. Talley was a noted humanitarian. The entire fraternal system has lost a great pioneer and dynamic leader. The Woodmen Circle has lost a friend and its guide of the last 42 years.
CHILDHOOD
Dora Alexander was born November 14, 1879, near Russellville, Alabama, the daughter of James Douglas and Nancy Elizabeth Alexander. Her father, of Scotch-Irish descent, was born on the Douglas plantation in Alabama, a portion of which was later included in the Muscle Shoals project. The old Douglas home remains on its original site. The family experienced the vicissitudes of the reconstruction period in the South, which followed the Civil War; and from these experiences of want and hardship, she no doubt developed the qualities of self-reliance, independence, and self-assurance, which have contributed to making her a national figure in the fraternal world.
In 1880 the Alexander family moved to Garland, Dallas Co., Texas, where this talented daughter grew into womanhood. Her childhood days were happy, busy ones. When out of school, she assisted her mother with household duties and the care of her young brothers and sister. She received her education in the rural and normal schools of Texas; and at the age of sixteen, largely through the influence of her father, who himself had been a teacher, entered the teaching profession and taught for a number of years in the Garland High and other Dallas County schools.

EARLY CAREER
Her activities, which began in the local Grove, soon attracted favorable attention among the members of the Woodmen Circle. In 1909 and again in 1911 she was elected delegate from her local grove to the state convention. At the state meeting in 1911 she was made delegate to the national convention, which met that year in Rochester, New York. Here she was unanimously elected Supreme.....end of article missing

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