In 1941, Greer Garson earned an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Fort Worth's Edna Gladney in Blossoms in the Dust. All eyes turned toward the small yet mighty Gladney and her fight for children's rights and adoption reform. Born in 1886, Edna Gladney was labeled as "illegitimate" from birth and, as an adult, lobbied for that label's removal from all birth certificates.
During World War I, when many women left the home to work, Edna opened an innovative daytime nursery to care for the children of these working women. What became the Gladney Center for Adoption has changed the lives of families and children the world over.
Aledo author and Gladney parent Sherrie McLeRoy tells Edna Gladney's amazing story alongside the making of the movie that launched Edna and adoption reform beyond Fort Worth's borders to national recognition, in her latest book, titled Texas Adoption Activist Edna Gladney: A Life and Legacy of Love published by History Press. It was released Feb. 11.
McLeRoy will autograph copies at the Gladney Center's 50th Annual Blossoms in the Dust luncheon to be held at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel Ballroom on Thursday, March 27.
"Why did I write the book? I first wrote briefly about Edna in my 1993 history of Grayson County; she started her
serious work with children there, where we were then living," McLeRoy says. "I vividly remember correcting the "galleys" with my right hand while I held Ann-whom we'd just gotten from Gladney- in my left arm. My thoughts naturally turned to Edna again when I chose the women I would write about in Red River Women, in 1996. That was when I first met her Fort Worth family. As the years have gone on and my daughter grows more beautiful every day, I've become rather obsessed with finding the truth about Edna and the Texas Children's Home. Historians love nothing better than a juicy mystery."
