Nice to Meet Ya: Janie Botkin

Janie Little Botkin is a recognizable name to most longtime Dripping Springs residents and should be to all those who live in the area. Janie is an author. Her first book about a relative, “Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family,” is a story about a mine labor organizer in the early part of the 20th century, who also happens to be a relative.

The book received numerous awards, and book number two, “Jane Street. The Girl Who Dared to Defy,” is being released next week. There are a few other books in the works. Book number three is on Butch Cassidy after he came back from Bolivia. A fourth book is a first person account about big-time beauty pageants.

How Janie got to be a part of the literary world is a really a tale of Texas, with a big part of it happening in what was once the one-light town of Dripping Springs. It all starts in “Hereford (Texas) in the Panhandle. It was full of stockyards and is known as the ‘town without a toothache’ because the naturally occurring fluoride in the water. Having perfect teeth, that helped me in the Miss Texas Pageant,” Janie Botkin said.

Her family moved to El Paso and she entered the Miss Texas Pageant, of which she is writing a book now about the world of big hair, bigger glitz and glamour. “I was the first GuyRex girl, beauty queen maker. They sent five Miss Texas winners to Miss USA. I was their first one, Miss El Paso. It’s a coming of age story.”

After she graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in English, she wanted to be a writer, and join the Peace Corp. “I met my husband (Gary) and changed course. Went back for my school teacher certification.”

She taught in O’ Donnell Texas, and then for ten years in El Paso, living in New Mexico, but across the street was the Texas border. She then moved to Dripping Springs, “a one light town in 1976. Coming into town from Johnson City, I was amazed at the trees,” said Botkin. “Coming from El Paso, the month was June, and the yellow flowers were everywhere.”

“It was just gorgeous. I instantly fell in love. Not only was it humid, but it had insects (none in the desert). It was gorgeous. Five acres on a creek, it was a piece of heaven,” she said.

Teaching at Dripping Springs High School (DSHS) for nineteen years, and thirty overall, she became head of the English Department and more. Hays County and its future residents would owe her, along with DSHS students, a debt of gratitude.

She knew about local history and how to assemble it. “I had students collect local history in 1991/92. They wrote the history of Dripping Springs and Hays County, my honors English 1 students, freshman. It was extremely popular. There are sixteen or seventeen volumes.” They are available at the Hays County Courthouse: “A History of Dripping Springs and Hays County (1993–2008).”

In their research, the students recorded stories of the elderly that are still available at the Dripping Springs Community Library on cassette. Watching her students and their efforts, the teacher was learning from the students. “The kids helped me become a writer/researcher. I did not see the creativity in me.” She continued.

“I do want to give credit to my students that helped me.”

Her first book about her great granduncle, Frank Little included family anecdotes and years of research. It is in its second printing and there are numerous podcasts featuring the book. Numerous awards came from around the country.

Her second book now, being released on February 24, is about a real-life maidservant, Jane Street in Denver and her efforts in organizing maids in Denver, Colorado in the years after WWI.

Researching is painstaking. “You go back to descendants in their 80s… people have anecdotes and there’s always a truth. I walk the story. I go to the settings and walk where the characters walked. Where they lived and breathed. You feel it. “The Frank Little Story,” I walked in ten different states and seven years of research.”

Her fourth book, now in the process is completely different. It is a memoir of being in the world of beauty pageants and the efforts that went into winning them. “The Pink Dress, Memoir of a GuyRex Girl,” is about GuyRex, two men that molded their “girls” into Miss Texas, then onto winning Miss USA. She had a front row seat.

“The next book is set up differently. It reads like fiction, but it’s non (fiction). During the writing of it I became a better writer. It’s very personal. It’s a memoir, and quite a story as a former (GuyRex) student,” she added. “ I want people to know it is my favorite thing I’ve done during Covid. I have to try and figure out who the audience is.”

Covid has been hard on everyone, including authors trying to sell books without book signings and other events promoting their books. “I can be present on Zoom, but it’s hard for writers right now. It’s just not the same. It’s very hard for an author who depends on it.”

For more information, visit janelittlebotkin.com.