The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: annual cookout, pointe shoes, women who raised, New York, Forest Edge, Cambridge School of Ballet (more...)

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Product Description

Born as a ward of the state of Maine, the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father, Victoria Rowell beat the odds. The Women Who Raised Me is the remarkable story of her rise out of the foster care system to attain the American Dream—and of the unlikely series of women who lifted, motivated, and inspired her along the way.

From Agatha Armstead—a black Bostonian who was Victoria's longest-term foster mother and first noticed her spark of creativity and talent—to Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina who would become her first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet—The Women Who Raised Me is a loving, vivid portrait of all the women who would help Victoria transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet, acting, and adulthood. Though Victoria would go on to become an accomplished television and film star, she still carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, particularly common to those "orphans of the living" who are never adopted. Vividly recalled and candidly told, her story is transfixing, redemptive, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, inspiring.

About the Author

At age eight, Victoria Rowell won a Ford Foundation grant to study ballet and later went on to train and dance professionally under the auspices of the American Ballet Theatre, Twyla Tharp Workshop, and the Juilliard School before becoming an actress. She is the founder of the Rowell Foster Children Positive Plan, which provides scholarships in the arts and education to foster youth, and serves as national spokesperson for the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services. Rowell is an award-winning actress and veteran of many acclaimed feature films and several television series, including eight seasons on Diagnosis Murder, and has starred for the past thirteen years as Drucilla Winters on CBS's #1 daytime drama The Young and the Restless.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061246603
• ISBN-13: 978-0061246609
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #526,480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY MOVING MEMOIR AND TESTAMENT: LOVE TRULY CONQUERS ALL, April 16, 2007

By	RBSProds "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Five MOVING Stars!! Notable TV actress ("Diagnosis Murder" and "The Young and The Restless") Victoria Rowell has written a moving memoir of her life, which stands as a testament to the power of love above all else. But mainly it is an appreciation of the woman who gave birth to her and those women who raised her. Many fans will be shocked to learn she was a ward of the state of Maine for years. Her father, whom she never met, was black and her white mother, whom she only met a few times, was descended from the Mayflower group, which makes Victoria a member of the 13th generation of that notable original group. She spends considerable time in the Prologue going over her lineage on her mother's side of the family, and she and her daughter take a trip back in time, examining their family roots in Maine. The trip with her daughter to the gravesite and her solo trip to Augusta are very emotional. The book primarily covers "the many surrogate mothers, grandmothers, aunts, fosterers, mentors, grande dames, and sisters who were as much in my blood as was my own blood-the women who raised me." These were some truly amazing and caring women who opened their hearts and homes to her.

This book clearly shows us that, besides the bad things we often hear, good things can come from foster parenting and adoption. In her case, it did 'take a village' to raise her. In that regard, Victoria's life is a sterling example of both individual determination and unselfish support from others. And, not content to walk away with her fame, she has made adoption a cause in her life through the "Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan". Beyond that, I really like her writing style. And after all that happened, the beautiful Ms Rowell can still say to herself and to the world, about a mother she only saw three times: her mother loved her. And Ms Rowell's extraordinary efforts to see her mother the third time proves she also loved her mom. Caution: many emotional moments ahead! Highly Recommended! Five INSPIRING Stars!

(Note: this review is based on an unabridged digital download in secure eReader format.)

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Claiming Family, May 7, 2007

By	L. J. Allen (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir (Hardcover)

While some readers and/or reviewers may take great pains to dissect Rowell's descriptions of her biological mother--and various foster mothers and mentors--I will avoid the unnecessary recounting of every detail of these remarkable women. Needless to say, the venerable and undaunted Black farm owner Agatha Armstead, Rowell's long-term foster mother, receives considerable and much deserved attention in this book. (The "Agatha" Award is named for Armstead and given annually by Rowell's nonprofit organization The Rowell Foster Children Positive Plan.) Yet there may be some readers who may have difficulty understanding the author's obvious need to elevate and illuminate her biological schizophrenic White mother, Dorothy Rowell.

With no contradictions, the author's real and literary attempt at exposing, explaining, and claiming her biological mother is stunningly African-American; less than a handful of us Black folks can claim any kind of racial purity due to our slave past--a past shaped as much by sexual exploitation and the occasional breaking of social and legal codes that proscribed interracial relations, as by the exploitation of labor. Both old and new Black American literature, like Black American life, is filled to the brim with accounts of unknown and unnamed ancestors, many of whom did not arrive from Africa; most of whom were not anxious to claim their darker relatives. This memoir is a 20th and 21st century story as old as Black America itself.

For persons who are visibly and culturally Black, yet who have a White parent, shaping an identity can be visceral and defiantly individual. Yet our long dead Black ancestors did exactly what Rowell does in this book--they claimed what they knew, and embraced the people they needed to embrace to give themselves a sense of history, belonging, and community. Without a full family history, the author can only tell us what she knows about her biological family tree; and like the ancestors of old, it is a fragmented and painful account. Like many an orphaned slave child, the foster child in this book claimed family wherever she found it. Her search for family and a sense of belonging ripples through this book and is set to life through her crisp and conversational prose. The women who raised her are family by their actions and by her acclamation.

Readers looking for an autobiography of titillating personal details will not find it here. The author delves deep enough into her childhood, young adult, and relatively recent life experiences. Yet she essentially keeps her focus on the array of women who have mothered and mentored her. That is, of course, the power of this text. All of her mothers come across as ordinary women who rose to the extraordinary and often painful task of foster parenting a child that they knew they might have been unable to keep. Rowell leaves no mentor unmentioned, giving readers the rare opportunity to contemplate all of the unsung women in their own lives who have "raised" them. The beauty of this book is the realization that all of these women are women any one of us might meet anywhere.

Rowell has long been an advocate and voice for children in foster care. She has tirelessly encouraged ordinary folks to become foster parents and mentors; and has often opened her own home to foster parents and children. She adds to that stellar legacy with this book. Her literary accomplishment, however, is that she pulls this off without excessive melodrama or moralizing. All at once you weep, and all at once you celebrate. You empathize, but do so without pity. I highly recommend this work and look forward to the next.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!, April 20, 2007

By	Sir Angus (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Victoria Rowell is a gorgeous woman and brilliant actress (having had starring roles in both Diagnosis Murder and The Young and the Restless). Her book shows how hard she had to work to earn her success, how deeply she appreciates everyone who helped her along the way, and how dedicated she is to helping others ... clearly, as beautiful inside as outside.

Ms. Rowell's mother was a lily white Mayflower descendent and schizophrenic, and her father an unknown Black man. Ms. Rowell was a foster child from infancy until adulthood -- but never stopped loving her mother or appreciating each of her foster parents, and everyone else who tried to help her. She has been through MUCH more than most of us can even imagine, yet remains upbeat and grateful for every shred of kindness, and determined to help other foster children (for whom she founded a charitable foundation).

Victoria Rowell is truly remarkable, and her book is awesome. In addition to learning about this wonderful celebrity, reading it should give hope to foster children, inspiration to foster parents, and an awakening to everyone else, apprising us of the problems encountered by foster children (e.g., being dumped on the street at age 18, which seems unconscionable since many have not even graduated from high school yet), and what we can do to help.

HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!