Business

Ninnie Baird: Ninnie Baird baked great tasting bread and from a simple beginning in Fort Worth, she went on to found Mrs. Baird's Bakeries. Ninnie had eight surviving children, of which each of the boys and some of the girls helped in the start of the business. The four sons were the main children involved in the growth of the business, which steadily expanded into other cities throughout the state. Today Mrs. Baird's bread and other products are available in parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Ned Barnes: Inventor, who's inventions included a brace to maintain the distance between train rails, an electric projector to display train arrival and departure times, a railway tie plate, and a hot-box cooler and oiler. One patent (no. 1,124,879), for an automatic film-mover, was granted to its two co-inventors, Berger Edmond of Houston, and Ned Barnes.

Charles Doolin: purchased a corn chip recipe, a handheld potato ricer and 19 retail accounts from a corn chip manufacturer for $100, which he borrowed from his mother. Doolin established a new corn chip business, The Frito Company, in his mother's kitchen. Doolin and his mother and brother produced the corn chips, named Fritos. 

Lucile Bishop Smith:  had a long career as an educator, businesswoman, and inventor of Lucille's All Purpose Hot Roll Mix, the nation's first. She was a home economist who established one of the first college level commercial foods and technology departments in the U.S.

T. Boone Pickens:  business magnate and financier. Pickens chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raiderduring the 1980s.

Carroll Shelby: automotive designer, racing driver and entrepreneur. He was best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and later the Mustang-based performance cars for Ford Motor Company known as Shelby Mustangs which he had done since 1965. His company, Shelby American Inc., founded in 1962, currently sells modified Ford vehicles, as well as performance parts

Mary Kay Ash: was an American business woman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.

Howard Hughes:  was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, aerospace engineer, film maker and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world. As a maverick film producer, Hughes gained prominence in Hollywood from the late 1920s, making big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket (1928), Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1943). Hughes was one of the most influential aviators in history: he set multiple world air speed records, built the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 "Hercules" 

Bette Nesmith Graham: inventor of Liquid Paper, founded a company based upon this invention, making her a multi-millionaire. 

Micheal Dell: American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. He is known as the founder and CEO of Dell Inc., one of the world’s leading sellers of personal computers (PCs). He was ranked the 41st richest person in the world on 2012 Forbes Billionaires list, with a net worth of US$15.9 billion as of March 2012.

Edith Mckanna- McKanna became the first woman in Texas to receive a pilot's license and to own her own plane. During her flying career she logged well over 3,000 flying hours. She became a charter member of the Ninety-Nine Club, composed of the first ninety-nine women pilots in America. After American entry into World War II, she volunteered for the Civil Air Patrol and donated her plane to the war effort. For three years she served with the rank of captain at the air force headquarters as a liaison for the Civil Air Patrol and the United States Army Air Force.

In 1945 she returned to Scurry County, organized the Imperial Oil Company, and began securing leases. When her discovery well, the Ossie Buffalo, blew in on the Fuller field, Edith McKanna became the only woman oil operator in the oil boom that centered around the Canyon Reef field. By December 1949 she controlled 86,000 acres and had seven producing wells. She often visited the rig sites on her leases in a white hat and white gloves, a trait she reportedly adopted "to let them know a lady was on the site." She never ventured onto the derrick floor, however, since "man's work" was done there. Time magazine referred to her as the "Lady in the Oil Patch" in a 1949 article, and in February 1951 Mrs. McKanna was awarded a scroll of distinction in the field of petroleum by Vice President Alben Barkley, as one of seven of the Southwest's most distinguished women. She developed her Rock Ledge Farm, near Fluvanna, into a showplace.