The U.S. Census Bureau has always been ahead of the curve when it 

comes to employing women. Ever since 1880, when it started using 

professional enumerators rather than U.S. marshals, the Census Office 

had employed women in that role. With the advent of the Hollerith 

tabulating machine in 1890, women moved into the role of keypunchers. 

By 1909, 10 years before the 19th Amendment granted national women's 

suffrage, over 50 percent of the Census Bureau’s 624 employees were 

women. As women proved themselves as capable as the men, and with 

the increasing number of women in the workforce, it became harder for 

the Census Bureau to justify assigning all supervisory positions to men. 

By 1920, the Census Bureau would once again push forward appointing 

the first five female supervisors, as well as the first three female expert 

chiefs of divisions. 

Marian (sometimes Marion) Burck, called Minnie by her family, was 

born March 9, 1871 in Milam County, Texas, to Alfred and his wife, 

Frances. Over the next few years, a town sprang up in the area. It 

incorporated as Rockdale in 1874 and Alfred became its first mayor. In 

the mid-1880s, Alfred left the family and never returned. As the 

oldest child, the teenaged Minnie became a schoolteacher in order to 

support the family. In 1894, she married Roy Edgerton Smith, the son 

of a prominent politician. Together the couple had seven children. By 

1920, Roy had also deserted his family, leaving Minnie with four 

children under the age of 17. Despite his abandonment, they never 

divorced and Minnie went by Mrs. Roy E. Smith for the rest of her life. 

She and her older children worked many different jobs to get by, 

including a stint for Minnie selling encyclopedias.

In 1919, Minnie joined the Census Bureau as the supervisor for the 6

th District of Texas, and would 

continue to work with the Bureau for the next 15 years.

With schoolteacher efficiency, Minnie methodically 

prepared for the 1920 census. On October 1, 1919, she

advertised for enumerators with the goal of raising 

around 200, and planned training for October 27. In 

early November, she again advertised for the 45 

enumerators still needed. In late November and early 

December, Minnie traveled her territory and met with 

local politicians to finalize plans for the count, which 

commenced on January 1. Despite her best efforts, 

Minnie did not get the needed enumerators and had to 

ask for an extension in order to get a complete count. 

A Political Matriarch 

(Photo courtesy of the Smith family)

(Photo courtesy of the Smith family)

Marian Burck Smith and Children

Burck Family 1880 Census
Despite of these difficulties, Minnie continued working on 

various census programs for the next 15 years. During the 

summer of 1920, she supervised the census of industries 

and manufactures. In 1930, she worked as assistant 

supervisor, and spearheaded the training of enumerators in 

March of that year (Census Day moved to April 1, where it 

remains to this day). In her role as 14th District Supervisor in 

1934, Minnie recruited and trained enumerators in 

December for the Farm Census of 1935. 

Desptie being a single mother, 

Minnie sent every one of her seven 

children to college. Her daughter, Flo, was a journalist and public relations 

specialist for an aviation school before moving to Hudson, WI, with her 

husband. Another daughter, Polly, worked as a statistician for the highway 

department in 1930 and attended photography school in New York. In 

1935, the Centennial Exposition hired Polly to celebrate the centennial of 

Texas through pictures. A third daughter, Mildred, was famous in 1930s 

and 40s Texas as radio persona Gail Northe before she moved to California 

and started a ranch with her husband. Minnie’s oldest daughter, Dorothy, 

was a successful dress and costume designer who worked as for her 

mother as assistant supervisor during the 1920 

Census.

Her sons found equal measures of success. Her 

youngest son, Burck, moved to California and became West Coast Manager

for American Airlines. Bill, her middle son, became an artist who 

eventually moved to New York and worked in advertising. Cyrus Rowlett, 

known as C.R., climbed to the highest halls of power in Washington, DC. 

Working his way up from a cattle baron’s office boy at age 9, to a 

bookkeeper at 12, and a tax accountant at 20, C.R. powered his way 

through the University of Texas despite having dropped out of high school. 

His meteoric rise continued through accounting firms and power 

companies until he ended up as the co-founder and president of American 

Airlines. His career had a temporary pause while he served as a major 

general (Deputy Commander of Air Transport Command) during World War 

II. C.R. was also actively involved in politics and, in 1938, he was able to 

introduce his mother to the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1968, the 

Smith family fortunes came full circle when President Lyndon B. Johnson 

appointed him Secretary of the U.S. 

Department of Commerce—the agency that 

oversees the Census Bureau.

Unfortunately, Minnie never got to see this 

final chapter. She passed away at the age of 77 in January 1950 at the 

home of her daughter Mildred (Gail) in Auburn, CA. She is

remembered as an amazing mother and a tireless public servant, who 

not only gave everything to her own children, but was also generous to 

the community at-large. In her honor, her son C.R. endowed the 

Marion Burck Junior Fellowship Fund and donated 575 volumes of 

Western Americana, the Marion Burck Smith Collection, to the 

University of Texas. Beyond her family, Minnie’s work benefitted the 

Census Bureau, the United States, and the men and women she 

inspired.

Smith Family 1920 Census

Photo from San Antonio Light Collection, 

University of Texas at San Antonio’s 

Institute of Texas Culture

Polly Smith c. 1936

Longview News-Journal (Longview, 

TX); 11 Oct 1938

Mildred (Gail Northe)

Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL); 17 Feb 

1968

HB-17-0007