AlumNight hosts history on the Mississippi
Theresa Greenshields
The Signal
In honor of National Women’s Month, the UHCL Alumi Association and the Office of Intercultural and International Student Services are hosting an evening with author Mary Sue Anton where she will give a presentation on her book, “New Madrid: A Mississippi River Town in History and Legend.”
The AlumNight event will be held March 8 at 5:30 p.m. in the Garden Room and Atrium I, located in the Bayou Building, with a reception to follow. AlumNight is an event that takes place approximately once every month that allows graduates of UHCL to get together.
“We usually get a nice mix of people from all different years,” said Mindi Funderberg, coordinator of outreach and communications. “There could be people who graduated last semester to people who haven’t been back to the campus since they graduated 20 years ago. So it is definitely a nice cross section of alumni.”
Anton, a UHCL alumna, will share a portion of her book that focuses on women of the 19th century and how they were often overlooked and, for the most, part lost in history.
“‘Invisible Women’ is just one chapter in the book,” Anton said. “It refers to how 19th century women were kept on a pedestal and mostly stayed home tending to home and hearth. Most did not venture out into the public arena. I will highlight a few of the 19th century women from my book, about how their struggles coping with the big earthquakes and the Civil War can inspire us today.”
While the presentation on AlumNight will focus on these ‘invisible women,’ the book also discusses a series of earthquakes and natural destruction that dated from 1811 to 1812 and one of the major battles during the Civil War, Battle of Island Number Ten.
Many of Anton’s ancestors are from New Madrid, Mo., some of whom date back to the founding of the town. Some experienced the earthquakes, and two fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Anton earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from UHCL in 1989. It was here that she worked for the student paper, then called the UHCLIDIAN, and drafted its first stylebook. Since then she has worked freelance for the Houston Chronicle and several other Texas publications.
She cowrote the book, “Pioneers of New Madrid, Missouri, and Their Descendants,” and in 1994 she conducted workshops on genealogy. She became interested in her own history when she discovered that one of her ancestors was present when a man by the name of George Morgan founded the town of New Madrid.
It was then that Anton began to write about the history of the Mississippi River town, which in turn won her several awards including a first place award in the Bay Area Writer’s League manuscript competition and an honorable mention in 2002 for her story “Civil War Comes to My Hometown.” The State Historical Society of Missouri presented her the Richard S. Brownlee Fund award in 2003, which awards grants to individuals and organizations proposing to publish or otherwise document the history of Missouri and its citizens.
Anton is pleased to be presenting her work at this particular AlumNight, not only because it takes place during National Women’s Month, but because it is her final year serving on the Alumni Association Executive Council.
“I felt privileged to be invited to serve on the AAEC,” Anton said. “It has been a pleasure working with the council. I especially want students to know that, despite the naysayers, one can write a book and get it published. All one has to do is choose a subject in which he/she has a great interest in and then be prepared to work hard. But the end product will be worthwhile.”
Anton is the first author to publish a piece of nonfiction about the history of New Madrid, as there are few documents and artifacts that survived this hard time.
“This is the first modern book-length publication presenting New Madrid’s history beyond its earthquakes and Civil War battles,” said H. Riley Block, former board member of the New Madrid Historical Museum. “No doubt, future researchers will find material [in her work] to amplify upon; that is usually the case when you are first.”
Anton will be available to answer questions and autograph books for attendees during the reception that follows her reading. If you would like to find out more about the author or see dates for future speaking events, visit her website at www.marysueanton.com. For more information about AlumNights, contact the Office of Alumni and Community Relations, call 281-283-2041, email alumni@uhcl.edu or visit www.uhcl.edu/alumni.
