Galveston's first families focus of next Wharton Book Review

The Wharton Book Review Club will begin its 2008-09 season Monday, Oct. 13 beginning at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and refreshments at the Wharton County Historical Museum, 3615 N. Richmond Rd. The program will being at 10 a.m.

Sylvia Thompson will give a program on several books and publications about the first families of Galveston.

She will offer stories of people who helped build Galveston to what it has become as an internationally known city, of mafia and gambling effects, the politics and the people who wanted Galveston to be truly the place of beauty and commerce that it had become before Hurricane Ike paid a visit there on Sept. 13.

Thompson lives in Houston. She received her bachelor arts degree in history and English from Baylor University and taught American history for a number of years at Memorial High School. She has more than 20 years experience as a book reviewer, historical trip narrator and lecturer on Texas and Southern history.

She is a frequent banquet and event speaker. She has lectured at Baylor University's Women's Forum, the University of Texas' Elder Hostel and UT's Winedale Symposium. She is the author of "In Praise of Painted Churches," written for the Texas State Historical Society's Heritage Magazine. Her first book, "A Tribute to Early Texas," was co-authored with Anita Higman and published by the Republic of Texas Press in October 2001.

She has served on the boards of the Texas Association of Museums, Baylor University Women's Association as a chairwoman of both the Accessions Committee and the Guild of the Heritage Society.

Season membership is $25. For more information, call Sally Soderquist at 532-4936, Sammy Lou Franks at 532-4615 or Dorothy Hensley at 543-5837.