Bette Nesmith Graham, born in 1924, was an American secretary and the inventor of the correction fluid Liquid Paper. When she worked as a secretary in the 1950’s, most business documents were prepared on electric typewriters, which allowed faster typing but led to more typo’s, because the keys were more sensitive than non-electric models. The carbon-based ink in their ribbons was nearly impossible to erase. As a result, a single typo meant retyping a whole sheet — until Ms. Graham came up with a better idea. Bette used a kitchen blender to mix her correction fluid, which she called Mistake Out, for her fellow bank secretaries. Her son and his friends worked out of her garage for $1 an hour. They poured the mixture into empty nail polish bottles, cut the brushes at an angle for easier application, and applied labels by hand. At first, Bette couldn’t afford a patent but she forged ahead with improvements like a quicker-drying formula. She sold her first batch of Mistake Out in 1956, and before long she was selling about 100 bottles per month. In 1958, Bette was fired from her bank job for spending too much time on her invention. But she applied for — and received — a patent for her newly named product, Liquid Paper. One of her first big corporate clients was General Electric. By 1968, she had built an impressive headquarters in Dallas, Texas, as well as an automated production plant. By the mid-1970’s, at the height of her success, her company was producing 25 million bottles of Liquid paper a year. She sold the company to Gillette in 1979, for $47.5 million. While Bette became wealthy, treating herself to a Rolls Royce, she understood the challenges that women faced. She established two foundations: one to support women in the arts, the other to support women in business. When she passed away in 1980, her son (former member of The Monkees, Mike Nesmith) took over her foundations and continued to support ambitious women like his mom.