Height of Wisdom
Dr. Dorothy Height was a woman who knew how to get things done. The headquarters building of the National Council of Negro …
Remembering Marie
Today, March 18, 2021, marks 100 years since the birth of my mother-in-law, Marie Barnard Smith Lilly, in Pampa TX. She died …
Finding Repose
Wallace Stegner’s novel, Angle of Repose, is a powerful portrait of pioneers in the Western United States in the years 1876-90, during …
Heart of a Woman
Florence Price was the first Black woman composer to have a work performed by a major symphony orchestra. The Chicago Symphony played her …
The Hill We Climb
After the appalling assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, I was worried about what might happen two weeks later at …
New Year’s Greetings
Our family greeted 2021 with gratitude for good health and with high hopes for getting vaccinations soon. We hope that you, too, …
Mar-a-Lago, Real and Imagined
On January 29, 2014, long before any of us had any idea that Donald Trump would be elected President, my Quail Ridge …
Persistent Women
My initial attraction to Jane Kirkpatrick’s novel, Something Worth Doing, was the author’s name; my middle name is Kirkpatrick. Examining the book …
Nina & Alicia
2020! This crazy year has disrupted my lifelong fascination with music by European men of the 18th & 19th centuries and schooled …
Honey & Juba Dance
Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) composed two pieces, Honey and Juba Dance, that intrigue me. Both are from a suite, “In the Bottoms,” published in Music …