Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine: Voices of Frontier Women (The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, No. 17) [Paperback]

Jo Ella Powell Exley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1990

Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine are the names of popular quilt patterns, and in this volume, now in its seventh printing, sixteen pioneer women describe how they pieced together a life for their families on the harsh frontier. Their first-person narratives, selected and edited by Jo Ella Powell Exley, provide a gripping, highly personal history of the state from Stephen F. Austin's original settlement through the taming of its last frontier in the west. The stories in Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine cover nearly a century, from the log cabin days of Anglo colonization and the Old Three Hundred to the settlement of the South Plains in the early twentieth century. Through the years, Indian raids, frontier-style "society balls," the Runaway Scrape, plantation life, yellow fever, trail drives, and the bloody Council House fight in San Antonio provided some of the blocks for this quilt. The rugged sunshine of daily life and the tears of frontier hardship combine in fascinating, realistic patterns. " . . . a fascinating collection of some of the Texas women's experiences. . . . Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine, a realistic look at the women of the frontier, is a book that also instills lessons of pride and courage for today."-Southern Living JO ELLA POWELL EXLEY is herself a fifth-generation descendant of Texas pioneers. She is a longtime schoolteacher in the Houston area.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JO ELLA POWELL EXLEY is herself a fifth-generation descendant of Texas pioneers. She is a longtime schoolteacher in the Houston area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: TAMU Press (September 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089096453X
• ISBN-13: 978-0890964538
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Texas Pioneer Women, May 11, 2003

By 

Texas Bob (Katy, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine: Voices of Frontier Women (The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, No. 17) (Paperback)

Jo Ella Exley has complied and edited a collection of writings of frontier Texas through the eyes of Texas Pioneer women. This has to be one of the best books I've read describing life in early Texas. Some of the women came from much but most from little, but they all shared in the determination to survive the Texas Frontier. Whether it was Mary Rabb, one of Austin's original "Old Three Hundred", or Silva King brought to Texas enslaved, one word can be used to describe them all, "tough". Mary Blankenship homesteading on the staked plains of West Texas at the dawn of the twentieth century best described the loneliness and hardship of life on the frontier with this quote, "We had plenty of time to be still and know God. He was our closest neighbor."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable Stories from Pioneer Women In Their Own Words, April 13, 2007

By 

Beth Ellis Bow (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine: Voices of Frontier Women (The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, No. 17) (Paperback)

Jo Ella Exley does a great job of giving justice to Texas pioneer women when it is long overdue. Much is written of the great men of Texas. Heroes like Austin, Houston, Bowie, Crockett and Lamar--just to name a few. But, what about the women who stood beside their men forging their way together through the untamed Texas wilderness? Exley gives a voice to these women, in their own words they tell about life and love on the Texas frontier. Heartaches and hardships along with joy and triumph are told in the pages of this remarkable compilation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great information, but difficult to read, January 7, 2009

By 

Ashley K. Stucki (Dallas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine: Voices of Frontier Women (The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, No. 17) (Paperback)

I appreciate the author's efforts to collect these first-hand accounts of Texas History, but found most of them were difficult to read. This book is not for the casual history reader.