HAMER, ELIZABETH MARCELLE LIVELY (1900–1974). Marcelle Lively Hamer, librarian and Texas folklorist, was born on July 14, 1900, in Whitewright, Texas, to Robert Morris and Clara Susan (Lemmon) Lively. Her father was a banker and general merchant in Whitewright, and her mother taught English at Grayson College in Whitewright before marrying. Marcelle attended school in Whitewright, spent a primary year at Kidd-Key College in Sherman, then completed her secondary education at Southeastern State Normal in Durant, Oklahoma. She received a two-year degree from Christian College, Columbia, Missouri, in 1919; she was president of the student body and a member of Phi Theta Kappa. She received a B.A. in English in 1921 at the University of Oklahoma, where she belonged to Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, an organization with which she maintained a lifelong association. In 1939 she received her M.A. in English at the University of Texas. After a year of elementary school teaching in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, she married Robert Coit Hamer, a cotton buyer of Renner, Texas, on October 1, 1922, in Durant, Oklahoma. They lived in Itasca and Austin, Texas, and Muskogee, Oklahoma, but their principal residence was in Dallas, where she belonged to the College Club and Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae. She also volunteered at the well-baby clinic that later became Freeman Hospital. The Hamers had a daughter; their marriage ended in divorce in 1930.

From September 1932 until 1955 Marcelle Hamer was head of the Texas Collection^qv at the University of Texas library. From 1955 until 1965 she was librarian of the Southwest Room of the El Paso Public Library, and after retirement she worked briefly at the Mary Couts Burnett Library^qv of Texas Christian University. In addition to her work as librarian, Mrs. Hamer was also treasurer of the Texas Folklore Society from 1934 until 1951. The position included working with editors of the society, including J. Frank Dobie, Harry Huntt Ransom, and Mody Boatright. She also worked with publishers, answered correspondence, and posted the annual society publications. Among her other writings, she compiled and wrote the first publication on the state Governor's Mansion, at the request of Joe Betsy Allred, wife of Governor James Allred. She wrote a chapter for the 1939 Texas Folklore Society publication In the Shadow of History. Her contributions to the Southwestern Historical Quarterly included an article entitled "Huntsville Centennial of Statehood Celebration" (1947). For the Frontier Times she wrote an article on Texas politics (1944). To the Library Chronicle of the University of Texas (1950) she contributed an article on the growth of the Texas Collection at UT.

During her years in Austin Hamer was an active member of the Texas Folklore Society, the Texas State Historical Association, and the Christian Church. In El Paso and Fort Worth she also belonged to the Westerners Corral. After retirement from the El Paso Public Library in 1965, she moved to Fort Worth, where she lived until her death, on March 4, 1974. She was buried in Oakhill Cemetery, Whitewright.

Citation

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.