Henrietta King: Loving the Land

From her days as a sheltered daughter of a Presbyterian minister to becoming La Patrona of the legendary King Ranch, this account for beginning readers examines the life of one of Texas's foremost frontier women and illustrates the realities of life on a pioneer ranch. Henrietta Chamberlain King met her husband Richard, a rugged riverboat captain who delivered freight to the mouth of the Rio Grande, while a young woman in Brownsville, Texas. Together they settled in the brush country of the south Texas Gulf Coast, determined to build a ranching empire. With her husband gone most of the time, Henrietta became as familiar with a gun as she was with her children, and often found herself dealing with the harsh Texas frontier. Her keen business sense helped her not only take the reins of the ranch, but lead it into the future by making great contributions to the cattle industry.

Mary Dodson Wade is a retired educator and librarian and the author of more than fifty books, including Christopher Columbus, Cinco De Mayo, I’m Going to Texas, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Tsunami: Monster Waves. Bill Farnsworth is an artist and illustrator of more than fifty children’s books including the Kaya series for American Girl Books. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the New York chapter of the Society of Illustrators, and the Oil Painters of America.