Featuring Guest Speaker Louise Parsley
St. Dominic Village Auditorium
Purchase tickets here!
KPRC Investigative Reporter Amy Davis
Houston Legend and restauranteur, Johnny Carrabba
Neighbor’s Table Sarah Harmeyer
About Louise Bayless Parsley
Louise Bayless Parsley, native Houstonian, wife, mother, community volunteer and award-winning writer, has entertained readers with her columns in the Houston area for the last decade. Managing to put into words what we all experience in our daily lives, Louise helps us to realize we are not alone and to be ever mindful of the importance of knowing when to laugh … and sometimes, when to cry. A graduate of the University of Texas, Louise is an “accidental writer.”
Having never taken a journalism course or read the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written, Louise fell into the world of writing quite unexpectedly penning her column, To Wit, for ten years. She has won awards for Excellence in Journalism from the Houston Press Club and Texas Assn. of Newspapers. May 2009 brought the launch of her book, Revelations in the Rearview Mirror: One Mother’s Hard-won and Hilarious Epiphanies on the Road to the Empty Nest. A compilation of a portion of her columns, the book leads its readers through the miasma and hilarity of motherhood, from the Holding On years to Letting Go … illustrating that, in the end, it is unclear exactly who raised whom. Louise remains active in the community through organizations including the University of Texas Fine Arts Council and MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Children’s Art Project and Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. Mother of two twenty-somethings and a chick who’s flown the coop to the University of Virginia, Louise is married to Bob Parsley, better known to her readers as “The Bob.” “Family,” says Louise, “is the best fodder.” In October, 2009, Louise was asked at the last minute to “sub in” for Mary Tyler Moore who had taken ill for the Bush Celebration of Reading held in Dallas, Texas. “Fortunately,” Louise says, “I did not throw up in front of the crowd of 2,500 people. Although, recalling how former President Bush lost his dinner on the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister a while back, I would have been in pretty steadfast company.” Former First Lady Barbara Bush wrote: “The combination of [Parsley’s] wit, wisdom and warmth makes me put her up there with the best … Erma Bombeck.