Classic Texas novel is back in print

Stories shaped S.A. author’s ‘Hannah Jackson,’ herwork in urban planning andmuch of her life

Sherry Kafka Wagner fell in love with books before she could read them. Wagner, a globe-trotting urban planner whose San Antonio projects include the library at the Hotel Emma, grew up in rural Arkansas, where reading material in people’s households rarely went beyond the Bible. But a copy of “Black Beauty” somehow popped up in her home when she was around 4 years old, and she begged family members to read it to her over and over again.

“It got so bad that they started hiding the book,” recalled Wagner, a vibrant 84-year-old with an infectious laugh. “When I learned to read, I was free of the tyranny of the aunts who would hide my books.”

Books and other forms of storytelling helped shape her life. She got into college by winning an essay contest by an oil company that paid most of her expenses for her first year at Baylor University in Waco. And storytelling informs her work as an urban planner.

“I remember that Flaubert dedicated every book to that solitary reader, and I feel like when I’m working on city things, it’s for all those solitary people, the crowds of solitary people,” she said. “You’re doing it for the community, but you’re doing it so each one can find their place.”

She grew up wanting to be a writer, setting a goal of publishing a novel before she turned 30. And she did. “Hannah Jackson” was released in 1966. It came out shortly after she moved to San Antonio to work on HemisFair ’68. Its release was marked with a party at Rosengren’s Books, the downtown bookshop that closed in 1987.

The quietly powerful

Bob Owen / Staff photographer Sherry KafkaWagner, 84, shares stories from her life and career in the living room of her Northwood home.

Sherry KafkaWagner Sherry KafkaWagner, left, oversaw theWoman’s Pavilion at HemisFair ’68. Here, she meets with Nellie Connally, first lady of Texas and an early pavilion supporter.