Helen Painter: Opening Doors for Fort Worth Women in Real Estate

When the National Association of REALTORS® began in 1908, women were not part of the real estate industry. Today, women make up 62% of the REALTORS® in the United States, and Fort Worth’s women REALTORS® can thank Helen Painter for helping pave the way. Before Fort Worth had a female mayor (1991), before the Texas Association of REALTORS® had its first female president (1989), before the NAR had its first woman president (1992) and before a single woman could purchase a home on her own (1974), in 1965, Painter was elected as the first woman president of the Greater Fort Worth Association of REALTORS®.

Painter was a Fort Worth trailblazer. Recently divorced with a baby daughter, in 1942, Painter moved from Oklahoma, where she was a teacher, to Fort Worth, where she was sent to architectural engineering school to prepare for her work with the Army Ordinance. With this training, she took a job testing building materials and metals for ammunition at Consolidated Aircraft Corp. This facility was known locally during World War II as the “bomber plant” and is now the Lockheed Martin facility.

In 1948, she became the sales manager for a local builder, McKeever & Co. In 1958, Painter became the first woman in Tarrant County to open her own real estate company, Painter and Petrie, with Maxine Petrie, winning the GFWAR REALTOR ® of the Year Award in 1960. For more than 40 years, until her passing in 2002 at the age of 89, Painter sold Fort Worth, its quality homes and charm.

Helen Painter shattered the norms of her time and opened the door for many more women REALTORS® who have served the Greater Fort Worth Association of REALTORS since her term as president.

1966    Helen Painter

1975    Beth Carter

1982    Billie Heffner

1985    Marie M. Sheridan

1987    Charna Logan

1989    Betty Dickens

1990    Gloria Stiles

1993    Dicksie McManus

1994    Mary Jo Thomas

1996    Mary Jo Berryman

1998    Connie Davis

2000    Barbara Debenport