380 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS twenty years, to address the convention of the Third District of the Texas Federation of Clubs 1 Her reception was a sig- nificant tribute to the effect of her life in their midst, and proves that, after all, the good men do is not forgotten, Mrs. Pennybacker^s school teaching came to an end in 1894, when the family removed to Palestine, Texas, Professor Pen- nybacker having accepted the superintendency of schools there. She now gave more time to club work, the growing importance of which she clearly recognized. This was edu- cational too, just as truly as was the profession of teaching, although its full scope was not yet comprehended. The death of her husband in 1899 withdrew her from outside interests for a time, but she soon realized the selfishness of giving her- self up to grief. Three growing children looked to her for guidance, and through her determination to be to them both father and mother has come not only a sweet solace but an important part of her own education. A friend, after re- ferring to the singularly fortunate circumstances of Mrs. Pen- nybacker's domestic life, says:
- Her husband — himself one of the great pioneer educa-
tional forces of the state — saw to it that she had the needed encouragement in keeping true to the onward course of her own development during the consuming years of her early married life, when her children and her home-making were her first care and threatened to swamp all outside interests. * ' The fact that she had been accustomed to a genuine compan- ionship with her husband in all the affairs of life, while it added a certain pang to the separation, yet must have armed her with a strength and sense of power that rendered her double duties less diflScult than would otherwise have been the case. The following year, in order to give her children better educational advantages and also to look after her business in- terests, she moved to Austin, where the family has since re- sided, her home being a center of intellectual and social life distinguished by generous hospitality, elegance, and simpHdty. Elected to the presidency of the Texas Federation of Clubs in 1901, her incumbency was a period of unprecedented ac- tivity and splendid accomplishment. An endowed scholarship
