My Goose is Cooked: Continuation of a West Texas Ranch Woman's Story

by Hallie Crawford Stillwell, Betty Heath (Compililation)

When Hallie Crawford Stillwell died on August 18, 1997, she was two months and two days short of her 100th birthday. Hallie had published the first volume of her memoirs, I'll Gather My Geese, in 1991. In that volume she told the story of her life as a pioneer ranch woman and wife in the Big Bend country from the time of her marriage in 1918 to the death of her husband Roy Stillwell in 1948.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

146 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2004

About the author

Hallie Stillwell was a West Texas Pioneer and ranchwoman, a schoolteacher, journalist, and entrepreneur in the Big Bend Area. Hallie Crawford married Roy Stillwell, twenty years her senior, on July 29, 1918, and moved into his primitive small one-room cabin, which was said to be about the size of a formal dining room in a modern home, on the Stillwell Ranch. She became a ranch hand working alongside her husband. She later wrote in her memoirs that she learned to live, work, and act like a man. Hallie branded and herded cattle, mended fences, and hunted game, all while raising two sons and a daughter. The drought of 1930 almost destroyed the ranch, but through determination and assistance from the Drought Relief Service, the Stillwells were able to avoid bankruptcy.

In 1948 Roy was killed in a roll-over truck accident. To help make ends meet, she lectured on life as a Texas woman rancher, managed a coffee shop, clerked for the city, worked in a flower shop, handled public relations for the local chamber of commerce and served as justice of the peace. Her literary success also helped the ranch survive through a drought when she started writing a column for the Alpine Avalanche in 1955. Inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1992, Stillwell died two months and two days shy of her 100th birthday.

Reviews

[Sequoyah Branham · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Goose Is Cooked follows Hallie's I'll Gather My Geese. While reading the latter I fell in love with Hallie and her family. Not to mention her realness. She doesn't hold back from telling about the hard and painful times.

While I prefer I'll Gather My Geese to this one, this one introduced me to many books I can not wait to get my nose in!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable follow-up to I'll Gather My Geese [My Review]. Half Hallie Stillwell, half collected by Betty Heath. If you liked the first one, you should enjoy this one, but I recommending reading the first one first as this picks up where the last one left off and leads up to late 20th century. Some pictures, too.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was laying around my vacation rental in Alpine, so I figured I would give it a read. It details the last few decades of a truly feisty and fun old cowgirl who was famous around here for being a justice of the peace, writer, and all-around cool person. I hope to check out the first half of her memoirs, about ranching in Big Bend in the 20's and 30's.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a follow on to "I'll Gather My Geese", which should be read first and tells Hallie's story up to 1948. This volume gathers the rest of her life in her words and that of others. The Big Bend country is desolate, but some find it the most beautiful on earth and Hallie was one of them.