"Ma" Ferguson was sworn in as the first woman governor for Texas. She served two terms from January 20, 1925 to January 17, 1927 and from January 17, 1933 to January 15, 1935. "Ma" was born in Bell County in 1875. She attended Salado College and Baylor Female Collage at Belton. At the age of twenty-four she was wed to James Edward Ferguson.

The reason "Ma" became governor was because her husband was impeached for breaking the law in his second administration. Since the Fergusons were very popular "Ma" was elected governor the next year in 1924. When she became governor, she put her desk next to her husband's desk and Texas had "two governors for the price of one" that term. Although she did fulfill a campaign promise to go against the Ku Klux Klan and sign an anti mask law, the court overturned it. In 1928, she did not seek office, but in 1930 she ran again. In the end, she was defeated by Ross Sterling. The next term, 1932, she ran again and defeated Sterling in the Democratic primary by promising to cut taxes and condemned alleged waste of money. She then won the election for governor against the Republican nominee. Her second term wasn't as grand as her first term.

"Ma" Ferguson retired to a little private life in Austin after her husband died. She tried to renter the race for governor in 1940 at the age of sixty-five but was defeated. She died of heart failure on June 25, 1961 and was buried next to her husband in the State Cemetery in Austin. Ma Ferguson was a great woman, even though she was not the first woman governor in the United States of America.