Educator. As President of the University of Texas in the late 1970s, she was the first female head of a major university. Raised in Texas, she obtained a degree in English from North Texas State Teachers College, and was working as a teacher until her husband was killed in an explosion at a New Jersey chemical plant in 1941. The young widow returned to school, earning her master’s and doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Texas. After teaching at Sam Houston State College, she applied for a position at the University of Texas; rejected by the chemistry department, she accepted a professorship of nutrition in the home economics department. Dr. Rogers was promoted to full professor in 1962, and later became a dean and a vice president. When she was made president ad interim in 1974, the school was in a period of turmoil (5 presidents in 6 years), and there were protests at her appointment. Nevertheless, she was given the job on a permanent basis the next year, and guided the university until her retirement in 1979. In later years, she downplayed her accomplishments, saying “I had no plans or ambitions to become a career woman. If my husband had lived, I probably would have been a housewife”. (bio by: Bob Hufford)  Family links:  Parents:  Mortimer Miller Lane (1887 – 1965)  Jessie Leonidos Luster Lane (1889 – 1967)  Spouse:  Burl Gordon Rogers (1914 – 1941)  Siblings:  George David Lane (1907 – 1961)*  Walter Fred Lane (1909 – 1992)*  Frank Weldon Lane (1911 – 1965)*  Lorene Lane Rogers (1914 – 2009)  Emma Lou Lane Kovsky (1921 – 2000)* *Calculated relationship