With Courage and Common Sense: Memoirs from the Older Women's Legacy Circles

by Susan Wittig Albert (Editor), Dayna Finet (Editor), Liz Carpenter (Introduction)

Overview

Women who were sixty or older at the turn of the twenty-first century have lived through some of recent history's most momentous moments—and yet these women often believe that their personal lives and stories are insignificant, not worthy of being recorded for future generations. To change that perception and capture some of these life stories before they are lost, the Story Circle Network, a national organization dedicated to helping women write about their lives, developed the Older Women's Legacy (OWL) Circle Memoir Workshops. During the first two years of the project (1998-2000), nearly 500 older women participated in workshops that offered them the opportunity and encouragement to reflect on and create written records of their lives.

With Courage and Common Sense presents an extensive selection of memoirs from the OWL Circle project. Organized thematically, they describe women's experiences of identity, place, work, family life, love and marriage, loss and healing, adventures great and small, major historical events, and legacies to keep and pass along. Taken as a whole, the memoirs chronicle far-reaching changes in the ways that women participated in the world during the twentieth century. They show how women learned to surmount obstacles, to courageously make the most of the opportunities that came their way, and to move quietly and wisely beyond the limits that were imposed upon them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292784406
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	222
File size:	937 KB

About the Author

Susan Wittig Albert, Ph.D., founded the Story Circle Network, based in Austin, Texas, in 1997.

Dayna Finet is an independent scholar and writer who co-directed the OWL Circle project.

Date of Birth:

1940

Place of Birth:

Danville, Illinois

Education:

Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley

Table of Contents

• Foreword by Liz Carpenter
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. Identity: I Am Not Always the Same Person
  • Daughter: Gayle Hunt
  • A Woman Named Billie: Billie Grace Herring
  • My Mother's Daughter: Katherine Koonce
  • My Father's Daughter: Jo Scudder
  • A Story about Who I Am: Ruby Johnston
  • All the Things I Am: Williene Story
  • I Am Not Always the Same Person: Marilyn Zimmerman
  • Going to School: Oma Gillis
  • A European Youth: Erika Eden
  • Girls Just Didn't Go to College: Gayle Hunt
  • A Lover of Back Roads: Martha Knies
  • Gifts That I Chose for Myself: Selah Rose
• Chapter Two. Home: I Was Born in East Texas
  • I Was Born in East Texas...: Helen G. Burton
  • How My Mother Got Her Washing Machine: Janie Kirkpatrick
  • Keeping House for My Mother: Betty Martin
  • Courage and Little Else: Helen Ibbotson
  • Chores, Chores, Endless Chores: Mary Lou Morgette
  • A Lesson for Young Brides: Oleta Cates
  • Horses, Friends, and Cleaning Out the Stalls: Sarah McKinney
  • Aunt Hattie's House: Janice Wilkins
  • Finding Home: Grace B. Schmitt
• Chapter Three. Work: Making Something That Lasted
  • Making Something That Lasted: Kathryn Doggett
  • God Had Given Me a Brain: Gayle Hunt
  • Making My Own Way: Erma Hiltpold
  • Clerking in My Dad's General Store: Pat Simmons
  • "I'm Doing the Best I Can": Patricia Gunderlach
  • District 23, Speedway School: Rose Vrba
  • Southern Belle: A Full-Time Job: Marthanne Luzader
  • A Fitting Job: Mathilda Mimun
  • Cattle Drive: Erin Colleen Moore
  • The Autoclave: Lavern Crawford
  • My Navy Career: Joan H. Crews
  • An Office in the Courthouse: Margaret C. Long
  • Things Began to Change: Faye L. Kelly
  • My Silver Star: Billie Grace Herring
  • Just an Old Hooker: Lois Earley
  • Granny's Biscuits: Sue Kinney
• Chapter Four. Family: Grandmother and the Pirates
  • Grandmother and the Pirates: Eula Rae McCown
  • My Father and the Value of Money: Bonnie Knipp
  • Nanoo: Carole Burke
  • Grandma Maggie Helman: Joann Bynum
  • My Mother and the Pigeons: Martha Knies
  • An Unexpected Meeting: Patricia Lyón
  • William and the Outhouse: Martha Brian
  • My Brother Ray: Kathryn Doggett
  • Aminta: Amparo González
  • We All Loved Each Other: Bertie W. Wright
  • Lillian: Francys Shliff
  • Rosy: Ruby Varnon Bishop
• Chapter Five. Love: 'Til We Meet Again
  • 'Til We Meet Again: Sherlie Hurwitz
  • Love Letters: Nadeane Walker Anderson
  • Those Golden Days at Graceland: Katherine Koonce
  • How My Life Changed: Amparo González
  • To Do As I Pleased: Minnie Ree Baccus
  • A Keepsake Penny, and Love Refound: Eula Rae McCown
  • "Hey, Maud Farkle . . .": Paula Stephens-Bishop
  • Do You Believe in Fate?: Evelyn Simon
  • "I Will Promise You a Rose Garden": Val Jean Schmidt
• Chapter Six. Loss: The Strength to Survive
  • The Lost Shoes: Alice M. Short
  • The Day My Childhood Died: Ruby Varnon Bishop
  • When Daddy Died: Ruby A. Taylor
  • The Strength to Survive: Sarah Lichtman
  • Teddy: Jean Wyllys
  • Changing Places: Joyce A. Dehlin
  • Renee: Irene Luedke
  • The Day Grandma Died: Sidna Leavenworth
  • "I Should Have Cried": Lucy A. Boyea
  • Losing Martha: Bobbye Jo Barker
  • When I Think of Grace... :Jeanie Forsyth
• Chapter Seven. Living Fully: I Still Had My Two Dollars
  • Decoration Day, Fairy Tales, and the Ice Cream Wagon: Oma Gillis
  • I Still Had My Two Dollars: Marji Smith
  • Baseball Fever: Jane R. Peppard
  • The Best Christmas: Mary G. Warren
  • Inside a Prism: Ruby Varnon Bishop
  • My Bonneville Convertible: Pauline Carey
  • Kyky the Elephant: Margaret F. Shive
  • Outward Bound: Jeanie Forsyth
  • The Happiest Day of My Life: Erma Hiltpold
  • The Day My Daughter Walked: Mary Holder
  • I Felt like a Queen: Lorene B. Laird
  • A Summer with Granny Rylee: Pat Williamson
• Chapter Eight. Witness: Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Events
  • Remembering War: Mathilda Mimun
  • Holocaust Survivor: Sarah Lichtman
  • "Where Is Pearl Harbor?": Lavern Crawford
  • December 7, 1941: Jean Leonard
  • How Would I Measure Up under Fire?: Eileen C. Titus
  • Rommel's Hannibal Connection: Janine M. Koch
  • Not a Dry Eye in the House: Patricia J. Click
  • When the Americans Came: Jean Wyllys
  • The Day Roosevelt Died: Bobbye Jo Barker
  • An Army Wife in Postwar Germany: Faye L. Kelly
  • An Ordinary Day: An Extraordinary Event: Wanda Heath
  • Terror: The Day MLK Died: Louise Kent
  • When the Russians Invaded Czechoslovakia: Dolores R. Muhich
  • Four Joyful Days: Agatha Barbay
• Chapter Nine. Legacies: "I Wish You Could Have Known My Grandma"
  • Family Books, Family Treasures: Helen Burnette
  • The Tapestry: Bobbye Jo Barker
  • My Grandmother's Dress: Joyce A. Dehlin
  • My Mother's Ring: Mathilda Mimun
  • My Keepsake Quilt: Mary Lou Morgette
  • The Legacy of the Two Lauras: Sue Kinney
  • Mama's Writings: Irene Luedke
  • The Other Side of Fifty: Betty Poe Howard
  • A Letter to a Young Person: Marthanne Luzader
  • "I Wish You Could Have Known My Grandma": Evelyn Simon
• Biographical Notes
• About Story Circle Network