Texas Originals

Enid Justin

April 8, 1894–October 14, 1990

When ninety-six-year-old Enid Justin died in 1990, she had been making boots in tiny Nocona, Texas, for over eighty years. Miss Enid, as she was known to her neighbors, was the daughter of bootmaker H. J. Justin, who sold boots to cowboys on the Chisholm Trail in the 1870s. He established Justin & Sons boot company in Nocona in 1889, five years before Enid was born.

When Enid was suspended from high school for dancing on a Sunday, she decided she'd rather learn to make boots than graduate. She joined the family business, learning leatherworking skills at her father's side. When Enid's father died, her brothers moved Justin Boots to Fort Worth—but she dug in her heels. "I knew Daddy Joe would never have left Nocona," she said and borrowed $5,000 to start the Nocona Boot Company.

As a female entrepreneur in small-town Texas in the 1920s, Miss Enid was a trailblazer. She served as her company's founder, president, and chief saleswoman. Over the next fifty-six years, she built Nocona Boots into one of the top five boot companies in America. In 1981, she merged her brand with her brothers' but remained in Nocona for the rest of her life.

Nocona boots are still sold nationwide today, upholding a tradition of independent craftsmanship—the legacy of Miss Enid and her beloved Texas hometown.

For More about Enid Justin

Justin was interviewed in 1981 for the University of North Texas's Texas Business Oral History Project. Excerpts from the interview, conducted by UNT's Floyd Jenkins, are available in the Humanities Texas article "Born into Boots: An Interview with Enid Justin."

The Southwest Collection in the Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University holds recordings of interviews with Justin from 1969, an Enid Justin reference file, and the Enid Justin Papers, 1939–1965, on microfilm, encompassing notebook and scrapbook materials concerning Miss Enid and Nocona Boots.

Selected Bibliography

Duggan, Paul. "A Texas Tradition Dies With Its Boots On." Washington Post, August 20, 1999.

"Enid Justin: 1978 Cowgirl Honoree – Texas." National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Accessed August 18, 2022.

"History." Nocona Boots. Accessed August 18, 2022.

Justin, Enid. Miss Enid, The Texas Lady Bootmaker: An Informal Story of the Life of the Founder of Nocona Boot Company. Austin: Nortex Press, 1985. 

Listen to the audio

Portrait of Enid Justin. Courtesy of Tales 'N' Trails Museum.

Enid Justin places the sign on the Nocona Boot Company building at the grand opening of her new facility in 1948. This building was used until the company closed in 1999. It still stands on Highway 82. Courtesy of Tales 'N' Trails Museum.