Legendary Ladies of Texas is a series of vignettes edited by Francis Edward Abernethy. Abernethy has extensive experience in folklore: He is a member of the American Folklore Society, Texas Folklore Society, East Texas Historical Association, and many others. His other publications include Tales From the Big Thicket, Observations and Reflections on Texas Folklore, and The Folklore of Texas Cultures, just to name a few. Despite being a self-professed male chauvinist, Abernethy believes it was necessary that the Texas Folklore Society produce this book because women have been an active, energetic, and influential part of Texas history since the first one crossed its borders, and it is time their stories are told (Abernethy x and xii).
This collection of vignettes detailing the l ives of women from colonial Texas to modern society has one connecting quality: These women have become legends to succeeding generations. These extraordinary women come from various time periods, various racial and ethnic backgrounds, various social and economic classes, and even various sides of the law. Abernethy relates the lives of Native American, African American, Mexican American, and European American women. The Legendary Ladies of Texas are composed of nuns, prostitutes, politicians, thieves, bank robbers, murderers, actresses, singers, sculptresses, socialites, athletes, adulteresses, bigamists, circus performers, slaves, and spies . These women have become legends because they refused to accept the limitations imposed upon them by contemporary society. Instead, they followed their own hearts and minds to live the life they chose.
Most of these women defied the social convention of male dominance over women. Elisabet Ney resisted marriage to the man she loved. Although she finally capitulated, she did so only under the condition she retain her name, and that the marriage be kept secret always. Martha McWhirter shocked polite society by asserting ownership of her body when she refused to share a bed with her husband any longer due to her religious convictions. Mollie Bailey, at age fourteen, defied her father by eloping with the man she loved. Belle Starr forced her lover, Jim July, to change his name to hers, and he became Jim Starr.
These women have become legends to succeeding generations because their unconventional lifestyles have produced many stories and rumors about them. These rumor s create an aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding them. In the case of Adah Isaacs Menken, she deliberately courted intrigue by telling many different stories of her origins, family, upbringing, and other episodes of her life. Because of this, we cannot have a black and white picture of these women. For example, it is hard to reconcile the bank robber Bonnie Parker who shot down police officers to the waitress Bonnie Parker who sometimes forgot to ask for payment for food shed served to certain unemployed visitors to the restaurant where she worked during the Great Depression (Abernethy 164). As surely as these women defied social conventions, they also refuse to be pigeon-holed. They are full of complexities and ambiguities, and their legends live on.
The treatment of a subject of this nature could only be partial, since to include all the legendary ladies of Texas would be too enormous a task for one book. However, the women included demonstrate the many ethnic populations in Texas, and different economic classes. The work must be described as popular, not scholarly. Much of the stories of these women are, admittedly, hearsay. The book is organized chronologically, under five major headings: Early Days, Settlers, Texas Gets Culture, Early 20th Century, and Modern Times. Most of the vignettes are well written and well chosen for this book, but the inclusion of Mrs. Bailey and the Bears seems to be out of place. This story of a woman who lived during the Civil War is stuck in the Modern Times section, and there does not seem to be any historical basis to her as there is to the other women.
The book contained a few typographical and grammar errors, such as personna and too far superior (Abernethy 190). But this was not such a disturbing error as was the glaring bias as displayed by H. Gordon Frost in his article, El Paso Madams. Frost writes society's attitudes of tolerance and understanding of innate human nature have been forgotten, being replaced with stone-casting hypocrisy and cynicism Abernethy 141). These are inflammatory words, suggesting that anyone who desires to keep their husband, son, brother, or other male relative away from prostitutes is a stone-throwing hypocrite.
The vignettes were very well written and easy to read. The flow of the book is excellent. In relating the lives of these women, any background knowledge needed was carefully included and explained when necessary. These s tories offer information about these women that are not part of the common knowledge. For example, probably everyone in Texas knows of Elisabet Ney as an exceptional sculptress, but the fact that her servant Jim Wyatt hated her enough to spread the rumor that she lived on cat meat (although she was a vegetarian) shows a startling aspect of her personality that could cause other people to hate her so much.
Most of the articles in Legendary Ladies are organized pretty much in chronological order, except for the article on Belle Starr. This article begins with her adult life, then goes back to when she was fifteen, then moves to her early childhood, back to age fifteen, and so on. This marred the otherwise lively and entertaining account of the notorious woman bandit.
The many contributors to this bo ok used a variety of sources to write their articles. Maria de Agreda: The Lady in Blue was composed from mainly secondary sources, with one primary source of a letter written by Fray Damien Massanet in 1690. Angelina was based upon numerous secondary sources and the diary of Fray Gaspar Hose de Solis. The Weeping Woman: La Llorona uses secondary sources of other folktale books and some personal interviews with students. Belle Star: The Bandit Queen uses many secondary sources and primary sources such as census records, interviews, and contemporary newspaper articles. The Ghost of Chipita: The Crying Woman of San Patricio was written from books, magazine and newspaper articles, and primary sources of letters to author and personal interviews. Adah Isaacs Menken: From Texas to Paris used secondary sources and some of the woman's own poetry. El Paso Madams had primary sources such as interviews, personal calling cards, Alice Abbot's photo album, letters, deed records, and a trial transcript. Tell Them I Dont Smoke Cigars: The Story of Bonnie Parker was written using newspaper articles and personal interviews. The Babe used Babe Didriksen Zaharias' autobiography as the major source. Janis and the Austin Scene was primarily written from the author's personal knowledge of Janis Joplin. Legends in Their Own Time: The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders was composed of various newspaper and magazine articles and interviews with unnamed informants.
Legendary Ladies of Texas contributes much to the small quantity of published books on women. Women have generally been disregarded in recording Texan and American history, so th is book fills a large void. This book is written to educate people about the contributions of Texas women to society, but it also entertains us with lively and descriptive anecdotes. The book gives details of these women that are not known to the general public. Legendary Ladies of Texas is an interesting and informative book that would be to everyone's advantage to read.
Bibliography
Abernethy, Francis Edward, ed. Legendary Ladies of Texas. Dallas: E-Heart Press, 1 981. 224 pp.
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Author:: Mary Arnold
Keywords:: legendary ladies, Texas
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