Mrs.
Percy
V.
Penny
backer;
an
appreciation.
By Helen Knox.
(Chicago: Revell & Co. 1916. 12mo, pp. 7, 192.)
As the sub-title implies, it is not so much a critical appraisal
as a friendly tribute by a young college woman to one of the lead-
ing club women of America, who has helped the author and her
colleagues in the University of Texas in their own club life and
inspired them in their efforts at service.
the women's clubs a vital force for good."
The subject is treated under the heads "The Little Girl." "The
School Girl," "The Student," "The Educator," "The Wife and
Mother," "The Author," "The Traveler," "The Club Woman,"
"The Speaker," "The Woman."
In Mrs. Pennybacker's manysided life, the aspect under which
she is most generally known, and which is now of widest interest,
is that of the club woman. It is this phase, therefore, and its
related phases, which the book emphasizes.
"Mrs. Pennybacker has lived under the two regimes of the
Woman's Club--the one, of ostracism and suspicion; the other,
of power and recognition," says Miss Knox in the chapter on
"The Club Woman."
Her club life began in Carthage, Missouri, when she was still
a young girl. As a young married woman she went from Pales-
tine, about twenty years ago, to her first State Convention of the
Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in San Antonio, where the
bishop prayed: "Lord, though we are in doubt about this move-
ment, Thou canst bring good out of it!"
Today, the woman's clubs have become a power to reckon with;
it has become a matter of vital moment to gain their support in
all public movements looking to human betterment. While it is
of course impossible to weigh exactly any one individual's influ-
ence in so wide a growth as this, it is undoubtedly true that Mrs.
Pennybacker has had a large part in bringing about the develop-
ment which has been so noticeable in the last ten years.
Quotations are made from letters of such people as Edward Bok,
former acting President W. J. Battle, and Ex-president Sidney E.
Mezes, of the University of Texas, Ex-governor Campbell, Lady
Aberdeen, as well as prominent American club women, to show in
what high esteem Mrs. Pennybacker is held in America. Portraits
of Mr. and Mrs. Pennybacker and their daughter Ruth, and pic-
tures of the old Sam Houston Normal, and the Pennybacker resi-
dence in Austin, illustrate the book.
Elizabeth H. West.
How to cite:
"Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker", Volume 20, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v020/n2/review_DIVL3237.html
[Accessed Tue Nov 24 3:12:16 CST 2009]
