Hallie Earle, M.D.

Her second career was the weather. Her father started keeping weather records in 1879, and after he stopped in 1916 Hallie Earle carried on the daily observations, for years the only weather observer in Central Texas. In 1960 the U.S. Weather Bureau gave her the John Campanius Holm Award for that work. Her scholarship left its own record: when Baylor built its Carroll Science Building, the administration put a copy of her 1902 master's thesis in the cornerstone. Before settling in Waco she practiced at Torbett Sanitarium in Marlin and specialized in gynecology.

What the plaque says

Hallie Earle, M.D. Harriet (Hallie) Earle was born on her family's ranch near Waco. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Baylor University, and a medical degree from Baylor College of medicine. In 1907 Dr. Earle became the first licensed female physician in McLennan county and had her own practice in Waco from 1915 to 1948. After her retirement she farmed and was a weather observer for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Recorded 1996

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 0.7 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 1.3 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 1.6 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 1.9 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Rufus Columbus Burleson — steps away
• Oakwood Cemetery — steps away
• Robertson — steps away
• Canuteson, Ole — 0.2 mi