Today@Sam Article

A Dress Mystery Solved: Alumna Recreates Houston Family Relic

June 11, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

By Derrick Birdsall

The Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library has long preserved the legacy of Gen. Sam Houston and his family. The timeless commitment to detail and accuracy came full circle in May through university alumna Patricia Cude, who recreated a timeless relic of Houston lore for the second time.

“Patricia personifies the university motto, The measure of a Life is its Service,” said Charlie Vienne, executive director of the SHSU Alumni Association. “Her generous contribution of time, talent and treasure will be on display to be seen and to educate a new generation of Bearkat alumni and museum visitors for decades to come.”

In 1866, Sam and Margaret Houston’s daughter, Nancy – affectionately known as Nannie – married Joseph Stiles Morrow. Sam had passed away three years earlier on July 26, 1863, and Nannie was the first of the Houston children to get married. Margaret, as the family story goes, worked tirelessly on Nannie’s wedding dress, using fabric purchased from New York. She was able to complete it just in the nick of time.

The dress was donated some point after the museum opened in 1937. Due to the nature of the original fabric, it was largely falling to pieces by 1960. That spring, museum staff asked for a volunteer to create a copy of Nannie’s dress. Cude, a home economics major at Sam Houston State Teachers College, took up the challenge.

According to a Houston Chronicle article from July 6, 1960, Cude duplicated Nannie’s dress by hand and it was placed on display in the main museum’s rotunda. The dress could be found there for the next quarter century until it too succumbed to the ravages of time and was removed from display.  

"As a home economics major in the early ‘90s, I have seen how the profession and disciplines in what we now refer to as family and consumer sciences, or human sciences, have emerged in higher education,” said Ron Reed, associate dean of the College of Health Sciences. “Three years ago, the shift of our fashion merchandising program to fully online has created access for students interested in this field, continuing upon the tradition of teaching students the value of clothing and textiles, but in a more global context.”

In November 2024, Cude and her husband Paul were visiting the museum and inquired about her dress. The staff informed them that it had been removed from display years before, which began a series of events that led to Cude remaking a dress that she had first replicated 65 years before.  

After a series of phone calls and emails, she set off to recreate Nannie’s dress based on a handful of images from the 1960s and her own memory. Following several months of work, Cude and her family returned to Huntsville once again in May to drop off her fabulous recreation.

“When her family reached out to me about the possibility of this project, I was excited to be able to complete the circle,” said Derrick Birdsall, museum director.  “The topic of Nannie’s dress had achieved an almost mysterious status with the current staff of the museum. We had all seen images of the dress from the 1960s, but were lacking in detail as to who and how the museum acquired it. It was a stroke of luck that we were able to fill in a lot of missing puzzle pieces and a pleasure to work with Pat to complete the project.”

The Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library is part of Sam Houston State University and dedicated to preserving the memory of Sam Houston (1793-1863) and his times in a 15-acre complex located on the site of the property and home of Gen. Sam Houston. For more information visit the museum's website or call 936-294-1832.

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