I was in Austin, Texas over this weekend and enjoyed the happy experience of being at several book signings, all of which dealt with the history of Texas women. One of these book signings was for my own new biography
Emily Austin of Texas, 1795-1851, which has just been published by the TCU Press. I was joined at that signing event by my friend Dr. Bruce Glasrud, a distinguished historian and the retired Dean of Arts and Sciences at Sul Ross State University. Bruce and Dr. Merlene Pitrie have just published a fine book of readings entitled
Black Women in Texas History. We signed copies of our books at the TSHA meeting held at the Palmer Center. Later in the day, I attended a lively book signing held at the famous Scholz's Beer Garden and Saengerrunde Hall, which is one of the most tradition-filled places in Texas, especially relating to the history of politics in the Lone Star State. The event was a signing for a delightful new volume by Nadine Eckhardt entitled
Lady of the Palms, the memoir of her 75-plus years of life in Texas.
Nadie Eckhardt, seen at the right signing her book, has led a charmed and interesting life. A native of the Rio Grande Valley, she met and married famed novelist Billy Lee Brammer (
The Gay Place) while a student at North Texas State Teachers College in Denton and thereafter served on the staff of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington. D.C. After her divorce from Brammer, she married Bob Eckhardt, who served as a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1981. Eckhardt was one of the most colorful and effective persons ever to represent Texas in Washington, and Nadine was with him every step of the way until the pressures of politics ended their marriage. She then opened the famous resturant Nadine's in Austin, which became one of the city's most popular watering-holes. Nadine befriended the humble and exhaulted, the poor and the rich, and became an icon for the transformation of what she calls the "1950's" woman into the modern woman. Her friend, the director Robert Benton, named the 1987 movie
Nadine for her, atlhough it does not deal with the events of her life. This new memoir by Nadine Eckhardt transcends place and time as it brings the reader back into a Texas that once existed but is no more. It should be read by everyone who seeks to understand the state and the role that women played in it during the mid-to-late 20th century.
Nadie Eckhardt, seen at the right signing her book, has led a charmed and interesting life. A native of the Rio Grande Valley, she met and married famed novelist Billy Lee Brammer (The Gay Place) while a student at North Texas State Teachers College in Denton and thereafter served on the staff of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington. D.C. After her divorce from Brammer, she married Bob Eckhardt, who served as a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1981. Eckhardt was one of the most colorful and effective persons ever to represent Texas in Washington, and Nadine was with him every step of the way until the pressures of politics ended their marriage. She then opened the famous resturant Nadine's in Austin, which became one of the city's most popular watering-holes. Nadine befriended the humble and exhaulted, the poor and the rich, and became an icon for the transformation of what she calls the "1950's" woman into the modern woman. Her friend, the director Robert Benton, named the 1987 movie Nadine for her, atlhough it does not deal with the events of her life. This new memoir by Nadine Eckhardt transcends place and time as it brings the reader back into a Texas that once existed but is no more. It should be read by everyone who seeks to understand the state and the role that women played in it during the mid-to-late 20th century.
