Charlie the Delivery Stage Wagon Driver
Nurse Joyce
Art is subjective and open to interpretation. Those are the first words you hear when the subject comes up. When most people think about art, they generally talk about paintings or exhibits they have seen of famous art work. Most people don’t think about old west paintings or sculptures. Art is so important in every day life and in school. Many schools have discontinued art due to budget cuts which is really a shame. I think art gives children a different perspective by viewing other people’s interpretations in their paintings, sculptures, etc. When my children were young, I took them to see the exhibits in Ft. Worth. The Sid Richardson Museum includes many old west paintings along with beautiful sculptures by Remington. Both my children and I loved the sculptures. They were finely detailed and represented old Texas. His horses were magnificent. When my daughter was in her early twenties, we went to see the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame also in Ft. Worth. At the time it was smaller than it is now. The photographs were wonderful. They gave a real sense of how girls and women lived in the old west. It may have had some influence on my books as I saw how hard women really worked back then. The first woman to appear in my books was Mary, the co-owner with her husband Fred, of Mary’s Cafe’. The real Mary loved her portrayal. The next female was Heather, a young girl, who lived with her dad, Charlie. Her dad was the original stage delivery service to Pecos, Texas. The entire town relied on his weekly visits. Over time, as I developed new characters such as Miss Patty the school teacher, Nurse Joyce Doc Moore’s right hand assistant, and Katie just to name a few, they were portrayed as strong females and even leaders in their community. Parents of both boys and girls, please consider choosing a few of my books to give your children a new perspective of women in the old west.