If the Devil Had a Wife
When I picked up If the Devil Had a Wife, I thought, “Oh no, another book about how bad Texas people can be.” As I began reading, I soon found that I was right, but not in a negative way. The book is one of those real life, tell all books that will hold your interest from beginning to end.
The author, a descendant of H. J. Lutcher Stark, knows the subject through extensive research and interviews with family and friends. The chronology of the family events is persuasive and well presented.
The story of Lutcher Stark and his family contains romance, intrigue, drugs, greed and many other aspects of the life of the rich and famous.
Lutcher Stark married the love of his life, Nita Hill. When Nita could not have children they adopted twins. After Nita’s death, Lutcher married Ruby Childers who died about a year after their marriage. Then he married Nelda Childers, Ruby’s sister. What followed is the gist of this book and how those events affected future generations of the Stark family.
The details about the inner workings of the Stark Foundation provide revealing information about the educational and arts contributions the Foundation made to various institutions in southeast Texas and Louisiana.
You will enjoy this book. It’s a very good Stark family biography.
I am not sure that all the family secrets have been unearthed, even after all of the research done by Starks’ children and grandchildren. But I’ll bet some of the ancestors in the Stark family turned over in their graves when their descendants destroyed their good intentions.
The author writes under a pen name. She uses her father’s birth name, Frank Mills. When Frank was adopted by Nita and Lutcher Stark, he was renamed Homer Stark.
If the Devil Had a Wife is the winner of the 2011 NTBF Book Award in adult non-fiction.
The author, a descendant of H. J. Lutcher Stark, knows the subject through extensive research and interviews with family and friends. The chronology of the family events is persuasive and well presented.
The story of Lutcher Stark and his family contains romance, intrigue, drugs, greed and many other aspects of the life of the rich and famous.
Lutcher Stark married the love of his life, Nita Hill. When Nita could not have children they adopted twins. After Nita’s death, Lutcher married Ruby Childers who died about a year after their marriage. Then he married Nelda Childers, Ruby’s sister. What followed is the gist of this book and how those events affected future generations of the Stark family.
The details about the inner workings of the Stark Foundation provide revealing information about the educational and arts contributions the Foundation made to various institutions in southeast Texas and Louisiana.
You will enjoy this book. It’s a very good Stark family biography.
I am not sure that all the family secrets have been unearthed, even after all of the research done by Starks’ children and grandchildren. But I’ll bet some of the ancestors in the Stark family turned over in their graves when their descendants destroyed their good intentions.
The author writes under a pen name. She uses her father’s birth name, Frank Mills. When Frank was adopted by Nita and Lutcher Stark, he was renamed Homer Stark.
If the Devil Had a Wife is the winner of the 2011 NTBF Book Award in adult non-fiction.