By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – Dolores Hydock, a member of the Alabama Humanities Foundation’s Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, will present “Starch in Their Petticoats: True Stories of Strong Women Who Settled the West” on Thursday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m. at the Jane B. Holmes Public Library in Helena.

Hydock is a writer, speaker and storyteller. Her one-woman shows and presentations bring to life the voices and spirits of a wide range of characters from history and literature. Her work has been featured at conferences, concerts and special events throughout the United States, and her nine CDs of original stories have all received awards from Storytelling World Magazine for excellence in storytelling. Hydock completed her studies in American folklore at Yale University, and she has a master of arts in story arts/communications from East Tennessee State University. She has taught acting and storytelling at Birmingham-Southern College and has been the Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tenn.

The presentation on Dec. 6 will tell the true stories of five women of guts and gusto who were part of the Western Expansion in the 1800s: a wagon train pioneer, a homesteader, a mail order bride, a professional gambler and an actress of the 1850s. Their stories are explored through diary excerpts, newspaper clippings, historical accounts of their lives and photographs of the women and artifacts of the time. Combined, the stories of these intrepid pioneers provide a look at some of the tough, resourceful, ambitious and determined women whose spirit and sense of adventure helped put the shine in the golden American West.

The purpose of the Alabama Humanities Foundation is to create and foster opportunities to explore human values and meanings through the humanities. AHF is a nonprofit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as by corporate and individual donors.

To read about more Road Scholar Speakers Bureau presentations, visit Alabamahumanities.org/programs/road/.