Author Sherrie McLeRoy to Lecture on Ashton Villa's Most Famous Resident, Bettie Brown

Galveston's oldest Broadway mansion, the antebellum Italianate Ashton Villa, was home to one of Galveston's most unforgettable women—the famously independent, never-married artist Bettie Brown (1855-1920). "Miss Bettie," as she is still remembered familiarly in Galveston, was a feminist before the age of feminism—choosing to pursue her own path and eschew social conventions during the highly restrictive Victorian era.

Sherrie McLeRoy, author of "Daughter of Fortune: the Bettie Brown Story," will lecture about Miss Bettie's uncompromising, unfettered Victorian life on Thursday, September 23, 12:15 p.m., at Ashton Villa, 2328 Broadway. The lunchtime lecture is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. The event is sponsored by Galveston Historical Foundation.

McLeRoy, a former museum administrator turned writer and independent historical scholar, first became acquainted with the Brown family history when she lived in Galveston and worked at Ashton Villa in the 1980s. She has written some 20 other books, including "Grace & Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women" and "Grape Man of Texas: Thomas Volney Munson and the Origins of American Viticulture," honored as "Best Wine History Book in the World for 2004" by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Ashton Villa, Miss Bettie's home from the time she was a little girl until her death in 1920, was built in 1859 by James Moreau Brown, Miss Bettie's father, a wholesale hardware merchant, railroad corporation president and banker.

Miss Bettie traveled frequently, often abroad and often unchaperoned (regarded as highly suspect behavior by Galveston provincial society). She studied art with the Royal Court painter in Vienna, and created numerous paintings that adorned the walls of Ashton Villa during her lifetime there and later, when the house served as a museum for several decades.

Miss Bettie served on the lady board of managers of the Letitia Rosenberg Home for Women and the Lasker Children's Home in Galveston. On one occasion, she and other managers of the Letitia Rosenberg Home sponsored a "tango dance" as a fundraiser. It drew a great deal of criticism from various groups in the city but Brown insisted that the tango was "perfectly harmless" and that the benefit would go ahead as planned.

For more information about the Bettie Brown lunchtime lecture at Ashton Villa, contact Denise Alexander, director of museums and museum programs for Galveston Historical Foundation, at 409-765-3410.

Galveston Historical Foundation, the second-largest local historic preservation organization in the U.S., preserves and revitalizes the architectural, cultural and maritime heritage of Galveston Island for the education and enrichment of all. GHF saved Ashton Villa from potential demolition in the 1970s, restored it, and has served as its steward ever since. For complete information about GHF's programs, events, attractions, and stewardship activities, visit www.galvestonhistory.org.