Gussie Nell Davis

The Rangerette story has a hard edge the plaque leaves out. Handbook of Texas author Jeanie Stanley writes that there were no Black women in the Rangerette line until the mid-1970s, and that Davis said she would be receptive when a qualified Black applicant tried out. Critics of the 1971 film Beauty Knows No Pain called the troupe sexist and mindless, and Davis answered by pointing to self-confidence, discipline and cooperation. Her Greenville Flaming Flashes used batons she commissioned from a local furniture maker. Kilgore named a day for her in 1964, and Farmersville in 1970.

What the plaque says

Gussie Nell Davis Educator Gussie Nell Davis was a role model to many young girls and women through her creation of the first girls' drill team in America. Born to Robert Augustus Davis and Mattie Lavinia (Callaway) Davis on November 4, 1906, she and her family settled in Farmersville. After graduating high school in 1923, Davis earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from the College of Industrial Arts in Denton and participated in various groups. After graduation in 1927, she moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California. However, her sister Vera convinced Gussie to apply for a physical education job at Greenville (Hunt County). She agreed and moved back to Texas and began teaching at Greenville High School in the fall of 1928. During a football game, Gussie had the idea to start the first all-girl pep squad. They performed using head, hand and marching drills with the local community band during halftime. Drums, bugles, marching and precision dancing were incorporated and the pep squad became the Greenville High School Drum and Bugle Corps. Baton twirling was added and in 1932, the use of sparklers, firecrackers and roman candles were used in their performances, leading tothe group being renamed the "Flaming Flashes." They performed at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas and their performance was seen as a huge success. In 1938, Davis received her master's degree from the University of Southern California. In 1940, Davis started working at Kilgore Junior College and built a precision dance and drill team, called the Kilgore College Rangerettes. It was the first all-girl dance-drill team in the U.S. to perform during halftime at a college football game. Davis retired in June 1979 and passed away on December 21, 1993. The Rangerettes achieved worldwide recognition; Davis remains a hero to many and her pioneering legacy lives on in drill teams across the country. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 15 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 16 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 17 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Audie Murphy's Homecoming, June 15, 1945 — steps away
• First National Bank of Farmersville — steps away
• First Methodist Church of Farmersville — steps away
• Farmersville — 0.6 mi