One woman’s mission to help women shape their lives today by crafting stories of their past

As a former journalist, public relations director and current North Harris College English Professor, Joyce Boatright, Ed.D., has a passion for writing and recording her own personal and family history. But now the passion has turned into a mission to encourage other women to record their stories for future generations. And, according to Boatright, the need has never been greater.

“When families get together–for holidays, weddings, funerals or reunions–a favorite activity is the telling of family stories,” says Boatright, “and these stories are told over and over again as each generation comes along–stories of youth, of leaving home, stories of faith, of raising a family, and stories of your life.”

For her family, Boatright has been collecting and writing down family stories over the past decade and presenting them as Christmas gifts. “It was 1994 and I couldn’t think of anything to get my parents for Christmas…so I was wracking my brain,” she recalled. “As a writer, it came to me that this might be a good time to take all the family stories – those stories that always come up whenever family gets together and put them in a book.”

These spiral bound story albums included stories about how she and her brothers had to come in so their mother could trace their feet on paper to be sent off to Sears & Roebuck for their new shoes. It also included stories about when her older brother – at age 4 – decided to cut Boatright’s hair when she was only age 18 months – using the garden shears. There’s also the story about how her parents first met…and how her mother was distracted in the middle of her introduction to her future husband because her brother just hit another homerun for his university team. 

To encourage area women of all ages to remember and record their own family stories, Boatright will be teaching “Writing Your Family Story” – a class beginning April 6-May 11 on Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. on the North Harris Campus. Plans are also underway to offer the course again in the fall.

“It is family stories that give us those values and teach us those lessons – like determination,” Boatright pointed out. “When we read these stories, we find ourselves saying, ‘Oh, I have daddy’s determination’ – or we hear our children saying, “I have that determination like granddad had.’”

She also points out that writing down family stories – as she has done – becomes a gift that keeps on giving. “Our family stories books have been especially meaningful to my mother because these are stories about her gifts to us as such a loving and wise mother,” the professor said, “and there’s also a lot of humor and laughter comes from the stories that are written.”

She pointed out that all students take classes in American History, Texas history and world history, but many times, the history of the family is lost.

“I gave a presentation on telling your story about a month ago,” Boatright said, “and as a way for the people in the room to introduce themselves, I asked each woman to say her name and then to tell us their mother’s name, grandmother’s name and great-grandmother’s name. As we went around the room, there were participants who couldn’t go past their own mother – but the reason I stopped at great-grandmother was because I couldn’t go farther, myself.”

That exercise brought home the realization that many people don’t really know their own family history – the very history that shapes us all. “This is where we get our values, our spirit and what we treasure,” she pointed out.

The new class will involve six sessions – all on Wednesdays – for women only. A similar course is being taught at Montgomery College in The Woodlands that is open to both men and women. “I decided to offer this first class to women only,” Boatright explained, “because I fee