Harriet Quisenberry was born in Colin County, Texas. Quisenberry came to El Paso with her husband, Alfred, who she had married at age sixteen and her four children. When she came to El Paso she was in bad health and was told by doctors that she would not live much longer but Harriet recovered.
She worked as public relations and mail order director for the Popular Department Store. Quisenberry worked as booking agent for the El Paso Symphony Association when it was established in 1933 and as the associations business manager in 1947. Quisenberry booked some famous people for the El Paso Symphony Association like Eleanor Roosevelt and remembered how opera singer, Marian Anderson came to her office just to thank her.
Quisenberry was also active in the early days of the El Paso Southwest-Sun Carnival. She organized entertainment for U.S. Serviceman at Ft Bliss during the second world war and organized Altrusa, a woman’s club and was the first president of Altrusa Intentional.
Quisenberry was a writer, she wrote for several local publications. She was named in Texas Writers of Today, Notable Women of the Southwest, Career Women of America and once put on an all female minstrel show to raise money for the UTEP football team. Quisenberry chaired the committee that founded the UTEP Centennial Museum. She also hosted a daily program on one of the earliest radio stations in El Paso, KTSM, and was one of the first women to be on the radio here. She died in El Paso in 1958.
Photo courtesy of the El Paso Border Heritage Center of the El Paso Public Libary .
Joseph Longo
EPHS volunteer
