One of the founders of the modern Republican Party in Texas, 
Marjorie Meyer Arsht served as a state party committeewoman 
and was the first Jewish woman to run as a Republican for the 
state legislature. Becoming active in politics in the 1950s, she 
was closely involved in the early career of George H. W. Bush.

    A member of the prominent Texas family that owned Foley 
Brothers department store and gave Cohen House to Rice 
University, she recalls the contentious mid-century division in 
the Jewish community over the issue of Zionism. Formerly 
president of the Temple Beth Israel Sisterhood, Arsht served as 
a national spokesperson for a major American anti-Zionist 
organization.

    When she turned seventy, Arsht was working in the Department 
of Housing and Urban Development in Washington while also 
serving as a regent of Texas Southern University and running the 
energy development and investment company founded by her late 
husband.

    From her childhood as a member of one of the few Jewish 
families in small-town Yoakum, Texas, to her years of political 
activism and social involvement, she offers a moving account that 
will provide both inspiration and an understanding of how the 
Republican Party came to dominate Texas politics.

_________________________________________________________

MARJORIE MEYER ARSHT, who lived in Houston, always faced 
life with energy and verve. She passed away in early 2008.



What people are saying about this book

"Marjorie was a true pioneer, opening doors for women, and for 
Republicans—a rare breed in Texas before she came along. 
However, until I read All the Way from Yoakum, even I did 
not fully understand what Marjorie was about. In this revealing, 
funny, and poignant memoir, Marjorie shares all the joys and 
heartaches of her remarkable life, proving what Barbara and I 
already knew: This girl from Yoakum is truly a Texas legend."
—George Herbert Walker Bush