In one's lifetime there are role models who help to guide and shape the course in the world, and perhaps the most important model for a daughter is her mother. As a shepherdess, this matriarch provides a blueprint for the qualities and traits that form the foundation of a daughter's life. And so it is that From My Mother's Hands (Republic of Texas Press, fall 2000) captures the positive influences of a mother in the lifetime of her daughter.

The book features thirty-three chapters of Texas women--told in edited, first-person narratives crafted from two-hour interviews--as they speak about their mothers, their mentors. The chapters also offer family photographs, family recipes and profiles of the daughters. Collectively, the women reflect varied ethnicities, Texas regions, ages, professions and relationships. To offer the readers a tool by which they can reflect upon the matriarch(s) in their lives, a section of journal topics is also included.

Women featured in FROM MY MOTHER'S HANDS:

Teresa Palomo Acosta (Austin, poet) and Sabina Palomo Acosta

Debbie Agbottah, Loretta Edelen, Cheryl Sawyer (Austin, business) and Wilhelmina Delco

Shia Shabazz Barnett (Austin, poet) and
Beverly Antoinette Kilbourne

Diane Gonzales Bertrand (San Antonio, author) and
Consuelo Chauvin Gonzales

Cathy Bonner (Austin/Dallas, founder Women's Museum) and Eleanor Marie Totty Bonner

Toody Byrd (Austin, motivational speaker, counselor) and
Anne Garrett McDermett

Liz Carpenter (Austin, journalist, former press secretary-Lady Bird Johnson)
and Mary Elizabeth Robertson Sutherland

Vivian Castleberry (Dallas, former women's editor-Dallas Times Herald)
and Jessie Lee Henderson Anderson

Becky Chavarría-Cháirez (Dallas, public & media relations) and
Bertha Malacara Chavarría

Eileen Marie Collins (Houston, NASA astronaut) and Rose Marie Collins

Jody Conradt (Austin, UT Austin, women's basketball coach) and
Ann Louise Shaw Conradt

Wilhelmina Delco (Austin, former Texas House of Representatives)
and Juanita Heath Fitzgerald Watson

Lillian Dunlap (San Antonio, retired Brigadier General, US Army)
and Mary Lucinda Schermerhorn Dunlap

Betty Sue Flowers (Austin, UT Austin Professor, author, editor) and
Betty Lou Lewis Marable

Randy Huke (Austin, artist) and Bertha Mae Kruger Smith

Luci Baines Johnson (Austin, Chairman of LBJ Holding Company)
and Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson

Louise Locker (San Antonio, psychotherapist) and
Anne Trask Thomson Locker

Lydia Lum (Houston, journalist) and Faye J. Lum

Judy Maggio (Austin, co-anchor, KVUE-TV) and
Caroline Peterson Maggio

Laura Martinez-McIntosh (Austin, attorney-legal aid) and
Maria Luisa Renteria Martinez

Angela Shelf Medearis (Austin, author) and Angeline Shelf Davis

Kitty Argersinger Mellenbruch (Del Valle, rancher-educator)
and Flo Rae Anderson Argersinger

Evelyn Palfrey (Austin, judge-romance writer) and Lois Evelyn Palfrey

Janie Parker (Houston, former principal ballerina, Houston Ballet) and
Dee Parker-Davies

Dadie Stillwell Potter (Big Bend/Alpine, rancher-educator) and
Hallie Marie Crawford Stillwell

Louise Raggio (Dallas, attorney) and Hilma Matilda Lindgren Ballerstedt

Rose-Mary Rumbley (Dallas, humorist-author) and Amy Hass Brau

S. Eva Singletary (Houston, chief of breast cancer surgery-MD Anderson
Houston) and Agnes Küll Singletary

Bert Kruger Smith (Austin, HOGG Foundation) and Fania Feldman Kruger

Carolyn T. Sumners (Houston, Head of Astronomy, Houston Museum of Natural Science) and Margaret Eunice Kenney Taylor

Betty Switzer (Fort Worth, Texas Commission on the Arts) and
Lillian Ruth Brannon Williamson

Sarah Weddington (Austin, attorney-author) and
Lena Catherine Morrison Ragle

Judith Zaffirini (Laredo, Texas Senator) and Nieves Consuelo Mogas Pappas