Where I’m Coming From
Compiled by Forrest Preece
Ruth Pennebaker - Writer, Worried Feminist, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Friend, Indignant Texan
- What’s something about you that not many people know?
I was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, but I used to lie about it and say Houston, instead. Also, I graduated from UT Law School.
- What was your first job?
Oh, God — this is a traumatic memory. My first job was as a waitress at the now-destroyed Scharbauer Hotel in Midland. I lasted a week before I was fired for incompetence. A week! I wanted to die.
- If you could have dinner with three people – dead or alive, at any time in history—who would they be?
How about some of the great wits — Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker, Molly Ivins. Maybe they could cheer me up about our current political debacle.
- If you had to pick three musicians for a playlist, who would they be?
Willie Nelson, the Beatles, and Patsy Cline
- Favorite book and TV show?
Hamnet is the best novel I’ve read in years. And I love Slow Horses and Justified.
- Most powerful movie you have seen?
Casablanca always reduces me to tears. I’m a hopeless romantic.
- Favorite place in Austin?
Hike and Bike Trail — our city’s Central Park.
- Favorite restaurant and watering hole
Peacock and Texas Chili Parlor
- What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A visual artist -- but I was derailed by a lack of talent.
- Which living person do you most admire?
Malala Yousafzai
- What makes you happy?
Being immersed in a writing project, having a free-ranging conversation with friends when everybody talks and everybody listens, being with my family.
- Best advice you ever received?
Remember that everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. (In other words, we know so little of others’ struggles.)
