Georgia Neese Clark Gray became a member of the Upsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi at Washburn College.
During her senior year, the second large recruitment event was a formal party at her “lovely big home.” It included dinner which was followed by a “clever Magazine Show”*. Neese and Marie Moore had the leading roles in “Alice-sit-by-the-Fire.” She previously starred in “Peg ‘o My Heart.” Although acting seemed her passion, she graduated in 1921 with a degree in economics. But acting won out, at least for her first career.
After graduation, she studied acting at the Franklin Sargent School of Dramatic Art in New York City. From 1921 until 1931, she performed with stock companies all across the country. In 1929 she married her manager, George M. Clark. Towards the end of her acting career, films were replacing touring companies and film acting was a different path than performing in front of a live audience.
She moved back to Kansas in the early 1930s when her father’s health failed. In 1935, she began working at Richland State Bank, the bank her father owned. She started as an assistant cashier.
After her father’s death in 1937, she became president of the bank. In addition, she took over all the other businesses her father had acquired over the years. An active Democrat, she was elected National Committee Woman in Kansas in 1936. She became known in Democratic circles and was an associate of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her support of Harry S. Truman early in his career was fortuitous.
Boston Globe, June 9, 1949
She was the first woman to serve as Treasurer of the United States. More than $29 billion in paper money was printed during her tenure from June 1949 to January 1953. Although she divorced George M. Clark in the mid-1940s, she kept his name throughout her professional career and the signature on the bills is “Georgia Neese Clark.” When she was offered the job, Truman noted its low salary and asked her if she could afford it. Her later recalled that reply was “Mr. President, can I afford not to?” The Senate confirmed her unanimously.
St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 24, 1950
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), February 19, 1952
She married Andrew J. Gray, in 1953; he was a journalist and press agent. In 1964, she resigned as Democratic National Committee Woman for Kansas, citing personal reasons. Her hometown of Richland was to be razed to become a reservoir. Richland Bank moved to Topeka and was renamed Capital City State Bank. Its dedication in November 1964 was attended by the Trumans. At that time, former President Truman said of her, “She knows money affairs as well as any man, and anyone who brings their money here will know it is in charge of someone who knows how to take care of it.”
At the 1974 Alpha Phi convention, she received one of its first Frances E. Willard Awards of Achievement. Washburn University honored her with the Andrew J. & Georgia Neese Gray Theatre on campus.
She died on October 26, 1995 at the age of 95. A celebration of her life on November 17, 1995, took place at the Topeka Performing Arts Center in its theater bearing her name.
Georgia Neese Clark Gray
* I have it on good authority that a Magazine Show “had to do with acting out the subject of magazine articles. It could take many forms like charades or dramatizing the subject of the article.” Thanks, Mike Raymond!
