Annie Webb Blanton (19 August 1870 in Houston – 2 October 1945 in Austin) was an American suffragist from Texas, educator, and author of a series of grammar textbooks. Texas Writers of Today, by Florence Elberta Barns (1889–1957), Dallas: Tardy Publishing Co. (1935); A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased Before 1950, compiled by W. Stewart Wallace (1884–1970), Toronto: Ryerson Press (1951); Who Was Who in America, (Vol. 2, 1943–1950), Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co. (1963); Who Was Who among North American Authors, 1921-1939, (Vol. 1 of 2), Detroit: Gale Research (1976); Biography Index, H.W. Wilson Co.; Vol. 1: Jan. 1946–Jul. 1949 (1949) Vol. 11: Sep. 1976–Aug. 1979 (1980); Vol. 12: Sep. 1979–Aug. 1982 (1983) Vol. 18: Sep. 1992–Aug. 1993 (1993); Vol. 19: Sep. 1993–Aug. 1994 (1994); Vol. 20: Sep. 1994–Aug. 1995 (1995); Blanton was elected Superintendent of Texas Public Instruction in 1918, making her the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office.Cottrell, Debbie Mauldin (1976). "Annie Webb Blanton: Pioneer Educator and Suffragist in Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2025-08-08.

Early life and education Blanton was one of seven children born to Thomas Lindsay Blanton and Eugenia Webb Blanton. She had a twin, Fannie, who died young. Her brother, Thomas Lindsay Blanton, served as a Congressman from 1917 to 1936.

Blanton attended the University of Texas in Austin, earning a degree in English literature in 1899. Later in life, she pursued graduate studies at UT, earning a master's degree in 1923. She earned a PhD from Cornell University in 1927.

Teaching career By the time she finished her undergraduate degree, Blanton had already taught for several years in rural schools and schools in Austin, to pay her own tuition. She was elected president of the Texas State Teachers Association in 1916, the first woman to hold that position. Blanton was professor of English at the North Texas State Normal College in Denton from 1901 to 1918.Biographical Dictionary of American Educators (3 vols.), John F. Ohles (ed.), Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press (1978); She later served on the education faculty of the University of Texas at Austin for 22 years. She was the third woman to hold full professor status at the University of Texas.Margaret C. Berry, "Annie Webb Blanton" Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (University of Nebraska 2011). In 1929,"Delta Kappa Gamma National Officers Will Attend Meeting Here this Week" Pampa News (October 20, 1940): 1. via Newspapers.com she founded the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, a professional honor society for key women educators.Annie Webb Blanton: Founder, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, by Clara M. Parker, Literary Licensing (1949);

Books by Annie Webb Blanton included Review Outline and Exercises in English Grammar (1903); A Handbook of Information as to Education in Texas (1923);Annie Webb Blanton, A Handbook of Information as to Education in Texas (Texas Department of Education 1923). Advanced English Grammar (1928); and The Child of the Texas One-Teacher School (1936).

Election to the Superintendency The 1918 July Texas primary and November general election marked the first time Texas women could exercise their right to vote. Blanton was elected to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction with support from the Texas State Teachers Association, and with a campaign orchestrated by suffragist Minnie Fisher Cunningham.Judith N. McArthur and Harold L. Smith, Minnie Fisher Cunningham: A Suffragist's Life in Politics (Oxford University Press 2005): 64-66. She served two terms, declining to run for a third term in 1922. (The superintendency office was the forerunner to the Texas Education Agency.) During her first term she successfully launched a "Better Schools Campaign," which amended the state constitution to allow local property taxes to fund public schools.Gene B. Preuss, "Public Education Comes of Age" in John Woodrow Storey and Mary L. Kelley, eds., Twentieth-Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History (University of North Texas Press 2008): 364-366.

Blanton ran for Congress in 1922 in Denton County, Texas."Woman May Sit in U. S. Congress Beside Brother" Olean Evening Herald (May 9, 1922): 1. via Newspapers.com

Personal life and legacy Blanton lived with her teaching colleague, Emma Mitchell, for several years. When Blanton moved to Austin, Mitchell left her job to follow; the pair traveled together, and hosted social gatherings in their home.Jackie Blount, Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century (State University of New York Press 2006): 57. Annie Webb Blanton died in 1945, age 75.

There are schools named after Blanton in several Texas districts,Annie Webb Blanton Elementary School, Dallas TX.Blanton Elementary School, Denton County, Texas. and a dormitory at University of Texas at Austin. A biography of Blanton was published in 1993.Debbie Mauldin Cottrell, Pioneer Woman Educator: The Progressive Spirit of Annie Webb Blanton (Texas A&M Press 1993). In 2013, Blanton became the first woman to be the subject of a state historical marker in Denton County."Down the Corridor: Legacy of Annie Webb Blanton" The North Texan (June 13, 2013).

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