Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series set for 2019-20 season

Brazosport College’s Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series is ready for another big season, hosting empowering and interesting guests to speak to the local community.

This year’s lineup features a diverse group of speakers and a variety of topics.

Among the speakers scheduled for the 2019-20 Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series are President at Magnolia Doug McNamee, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Dedman, and one of the U.S. Secret Service’s first women agents Kathryn Childers.

The year begins with McNamee on Oct. 3, followed by Dedman on Feb. 6, 2020 and Childers on April 2, 2020.

The Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series was created by the Brazosport College Foundation to promote cultural enrichment for all women. The mission of the BC Foundation is to raise and administer funds for the enhancement of educational opportunities at Brazosport College.

The cost is $180 and includes all three lectures with lunch. Please make your series reservations by Sept. 18.

To learn more about Brazosport College’s Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series and its 2019-20 guests, contact the Brazosport College Foundation at (979) 230-3234.

The following is more information about this season’s guests: 

Oct. 3, 2019: Doug McNamee
From Fixer Upper to Magnolia

Born in Freeport, and raised in Lake Jackson, Doug McNamee is the President of Magnolia in Waco, home of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper.”

In 2013, when Chip and Joanna Gaines asked Doug and his wife Lacy to be in their pilot episode of a show they were calling “Fixer Upper,” he should have known his relationship with Magnolia had only just begun. Five years to the day after the airing of the pilot, Doug rejoined Chip and Jo, overseeing all business operations for the Magnolia family of companies including Magnolia Market, Silos Baking Co., Magnolia Realty, and Magnolia Table, just to name a few.

Before joining the Magnolia family in 2018, Doug served as Baylor’s Senior Associate Athletic Director, focusing on external affairs and fundraising. During his tenure in college athletics, he held various leadership roles overseeing operations, sales, branding and marketing.

Prior to his time at Baylor, he worked for the Houston Astros and IMG College. When he’s not thinking about all things Magnolia, he enjoys taking his wife, Lacy, and their two daughters to any Baylor events.

Feb. 6, 2020: Bill Dedman
Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

Join bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Dedman for an entertaining tour of the life of the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark and her eccentric family. In Empty Mansions, Bill Dedman unravels a story of American aspiration, excess and generosity.

Learn about W.A. Clark, the second wealthiest American of his time, a copper king, founder of Las Vegas and controversial U.S. senator; his shy second wife, Anna, 39 years his junior; and their daughter Huguette, an artist and collector.

Huguette’s life story is extreme, but it holds lessons for us all. If she had been better advised, she would not have lost $40 million of her fortune to distant relatives, her estate would not have wasted $25 million on legal fees, and her charitable wishes would have been more successfully fulfilled.

April 2, 2020: Kathryn Childers
Do It Scared

A native of Colorado mountain country, Kathryn Childers grew up in Pueblo and graduated from Centennial High School in 1965. Like many women in the 60’s, Kathryn was expected to teach school, find a husband and settle down. Instead she took off to Washington D.C., admitted she could type and snagged a secretarial job with a Colorado
Congressman.

Not her dream job but, by chance in 1970, the United States Secret Service decided to recruit female special agents and Kathryn was hired as one the first five women in their history to carry the badge and a .357 magnum revolver.

Navigating those uncharted waters with a deadeye aim and a sense of humor, Kathryn protected Caroline and John Kennedy, Jr., while traveling with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the First Family — the Nixon’s and foreign dignitaries, such as the Queen of Spain. On the flip side, she also worked undercover to ferret out threats against the President and counterfeiters.

Marriage to a Corpus Christi psychiatrist brought her to Texas, where she hosted her own television talk show for 18 years and started a media/publishing company that published and sold more than a 100,000 books based on a fluke Christmas Eve Texas snowstorm.

Kathryn credits the Secret Service for jump-starting her fascinating life and perhaps it was her willingness to step into the line of fire that set the stage for a lifetime commitment to community service. She initiated First Friday, a group that has funded more than 16,000 free mammograms.

In her spare time, Kathryn dons elaborate clown garb to cheer up youngsters at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. No surprise, she is “Sassy the Sheriff” complete with boots, spurs and a big red nose.

Retiring to Rockport ... she and her husband loaded up their two cocker spaniels and hit the road in their 25-foot Airstream trailer, seeing America by day and writing her book, “Do It Scared,” by night. She does all the driving ... even backing it up ... logging 20,000 miles in 28 states in one year.

 - - -

To learn more about Brazosport College’s Women’s Lecture Luncheon Series, contact the Brazosport College Foundation at (979) 230-3234.