Valley Byliners Historical Timeline

Updated: September 26, 2021

The Rio Grande Valley Byliners has a long and interesting past which you can read about here (see also the attached). If you have information to add, please contact us through the contact page. A significant contributor to this historical timeline is Marge Johnson from Weslaco, a Byliners member since 1959. In an article for our newsletter in January 2004, she provided names and dates and wrote about Byliners’ happenings and events that she herself lived through.

1943
In 1943, the year the Byliners was founded, newspapers were written and managed mostly by men. Few women were journalists. So, given the male-dominated field at the time, it was unusual that the Byliners was started by women, for women. Minnie Gilbert of San Benito and Lucy Wallace of Mission were among the founders. If you have lived in the Valley a long time, you may know that Minnie wrote for the Brownsville Herald and the Valley Morning Star and Lucy for the Mission Times.

1975
Starting in 1975, the Byliners began writing and publishing their own books. The first, “Gift of the Rio” was spearheaded by Lucy as part of the 1975 Bicentennial activities in Mission. She managed to get a grant for the publishing costs from the Mission Bicentennial organization. Singlehandedly, she rounded up the writers, helped come up with subjects, and pushed the project to completion. Each chapter, which was written by a different writer, told of places and events in Valley history. Minnie and Ann Washington edited the book and Ann did the index. Marge Johnson recalls all of them sitting around her dining table going over the galley proofs and laying out the pages. The book came out and was very well received. About 3,000 copies were printed. It sold well and the Byliners ended up with some money in the bank.

1978
After a while, Lucy got a second wind and decided that the Byliners should write another book, this one about the people who settled the area and those who left a special mark on the Valley. Someone came up with the name “Roots by the River.” The press run was 3,000 again. The book was also well received and eventually made some more money. Roots by the River is now a collectible book and sells for $50.00 on Amazon.
A third book was conceived when it turned out that a lot of people were left out of the “Roots” book who deserved recognition. The book was called Rio Grande Roundup because it “rounded up” others who had done much for the area. This time the press run was 5,000 and was paid for by the monies made from the first two books. It did not move as fast but enough copies were sold to pay the printing expenses. Rio Grande Roundup is a collectible book and sells for $93.00 on Amazon.
Both Lucy and Minnie wrote several chapters in each of the books, as did Ann Washington; their work was always well researched and well written. Lucy died in the late 1980s and Minnie lived to age 99, leaving her writing days behind in the late 1990s. Marge Johnson remembers them as bright, interesting ladies who pursued their own careers, as well as the goal of creating these publications to leave a lasting legacy to the historical literature of the Valley. Others participated by writing a chapter or two, but Lucy and Minnie did the real work.
The Byliners was started to encourage women to become more professional in their writing and to find opportunities in the writing field, as well as to get to know each other. They wanted to exchange ideas and have fellowship with other women writers and wanted to concentrate on women’s interests without the men feeling they were the only ones who could write. Thus, for many years the Byliners had a “women only” rule for members.

1980
This changed in the early 1980s when Ann Washington’s husband Tom became active in helping with the books the Byliners had published. So, the “women only” rule was dropped and men were invited to be members. Gradually, over the years, more men became interested in joined and now the membership is fairly even between the sexes.
The Byliners had a period of low membership, perhaps because a potential member had to be a published writer and had to be invited and recommended by two members to join. After the rules were changed in the late 1980s, membership increased again.

1980 – 2010
Since then, Byliners leaders including Eileen Mattei, Adrienne Ostmann, Mona Sizer, Jeff Harris, Ruth Harris, Sandra Vela, Janet Wilder, Jack King, and Don Clifford have helped the organization to continue its high level of achievement – with Excellence in Writing Contests and publications of the winning entries, monthly newsletters, annual Writers Workshops, monthly Writing Challenges, attainment of non-profit status, and publication of two more books: Tales Told at Midnight Along the Rio Grande, edited by Mona Sizer and published in 2006, and Collected Tales From the Rio Grande, edited by Don Clifford and published in 2010.

2011-2014:
After Don Clifford completed his tenure as Valley Byliners President, Sue Groves took over that duty for the next 3 years. Sue was a great asset and had the Byliners join the local Chamber of Commerce during her term as group president.
During that time, Frank Cortazo, who had become a Byliners member during September of 2010, served as Vice-President of Programs. He brought in a variety of guest speakers into the monthly meetings, including, among several fiction and non-fiction authors, some poets, a comic book writer, a musician, a forensics specialist, a 12-year-old published author, the head of the , at the time, local Sarah Book Publishing Company, and others. He, also, brought in some excellent guest presenters for the annual Valley Byliners’ Writers Workshop such as Poet Laureatte Jan Seale and Alaskan author Laurel Bill. During this
time, Bruce Nelson was the Byliners Vice-President of Publicity with his colorful monthly newsletter that graced the group membership e-mails every month. These were, also, the first 3 years that Jose Alvarez served as group treasurer, a position that he would hold until the beginning of 2020.

2014-2017:
With Sue Groves vacating the position of Byliners President, Frank Cortazo took over running the group with Ann Greenfield taking over as Vice-President of Programs until 2016. Frank would ‘double-up’ as President and as ‘acting Vice-President of Programs with, not only monthly speakers, but writing
activities, critique sessions, oral readings during his 3 rd year as President. During this 3 rd year, the office of Vice-President of Publicity, which had remained vacant after Bruce Nelson withdrew in 2014, would be filled by James Arnold.

2017-2020:
With Frank Cortazo moving, for the next 3 years, to being one of the group’s 3 board members, (a slot that he vacated in May of 2020,) James Arnold took over as Byliners President. During this time, with assistance from the group, James did an excellent job of continuing the group meetings with monthly speakers and with providing some excellent workshop presenters. Ana Cavazos took over as Vice-President of Publicity. The, still-vacant, Vice-President of Programs office was filled in, briefly, first by Mark Esperanza and, later, by
Delma Rodriquez, (who would assume the duties of the board member slot vacated by Frank Cortazo.) Kaitlynn Renteria took over as treasurer from Jose Alvarez in early 2020.
Writing Challenge Writers Contest: The monthly Valley Byliners Writing Challenge Contest has been
an on-going aspect of the Valley Byliners since it was created by member Jack King who was the first person with the duty of running it each month. Since that time, members Don Clifford,
Edna Ratliff, Christina Bennett, Jose Campos, Ana Cavazos, James Arnold have each taken a turn at being in charge of running it each month.

2020-2021:
The current president of Valley Byliners is James Arnold. James has successfully moved the organizations meetings to a digital format. The year 2020 brought on a devastating pandemic that sent our organization scrambling to create an online presence. For the year 2021 Valley Byliners are hybrid, and hold their monthly meetings and Poetry Night on ZOOM and face to face.

Valley Byliners is a Texas based non-profit organization registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity. All donations to Valley Byliners are tax deductible.

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