"Duchess of Palms is a wonderful and fascinating book. To begin with, I don't know of any woman who has written so eloquently about coming of age in Texas in the fifties and sixties, or anyone who has written so well about married life in politics from the sixties through the nineties, especially about that heady mix of Austin and Washington. . . . Eckhardt has written more truthfully about political life in America during that era than any man would have been capable of doing. Both Billy Lee Brammer and Bob Eckhardt were incredibly lucky to have been married to her."

—Robert Benton, Academy Award-winning writer, director, and producer

"Eckhardt explores and defines . . . the secret history of women who came of age during the 1950s, women who in essence gave up their own working lives to further the careers of their lovers and husbands. . . . She uses this idea to drive the narrative in a way that gives shape and form not only to her personal story of being married to two Texas legends but also to the times. . . . The writing is exuberant, personal, like having a one-on-one conversation with Eckhardt. It zips right along."

—Jan Jarboe Russell, writer-at-large, Texas Monthly, and author of Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson

Child of the Great Depression, teenage "Duchess of Palms" beauty queen, wife of an acclaimed novelist and later of a brilliant U.S. congressman, and ultimately a successful single working woman and mother, Nadine Eckhardt has lived a fascinating life. In this unique, funny, and honest memoir, she recounts her journey from being a "fifties girl" who lived through the men in her life to becoming a woman in her own right, working toward her own goals.

Eckhardt's first marriage to writer Billy Lee Brammer gave her entrée to liberal political and literary circles in Austin and Washington, where she and Brammer both worked for Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. She describes the heady excitement of LBJ's world—a milieu that Brammer vividly captured in his novel The Gay Place. She next recalls her second marriage to Bob Eckhardt, whom she helped get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as her growing involvement with the counterculture of social protest, sexual revolution, and drug use. Eckhardt honestly recounts how the changing times changed her perception of herself, recalling that "I didn't know how to achieve for myself, only for others, and I felt ripped off and empty." This painful realization opened the door to a new life for Eckhardt. Her memoir concludes with a joyful description of her multifaceted later life as a restaurateur, assistant to Molly Ivins, writer, and center of a wide circle of friends.