Margaret Olivia McManis recalls a particularly stressful Thanksgiving for her mother, Jimmie Drew Marsh. Not only were her four grown children in attendance, but Margaret’s aunt and uncle were also there with their two children. At the last minute, cousins arrived with their five children in tow. “My mom was not a very good cook, and she got distracted when there was more than just our family in the house,” Margaret says. “She was freaking out.”
As the atmosphere in the house became more frantic, Jimmie Drew put a canned ham in the oven to bake but inexplicably forgot to take it out of the can. At some point, the ham exploded, shooting swirly tendrils of shredded ham all over the kitchen ceiling. “Do not try this at home,” Margaret quips.
Jimmie Drew never lived the story down, and it became an urban legend in Sweeny, where Margaret’s family lived. “The kids’ kids’ kids have heard about it,” Margaret says. In fact, her younger brother, who was a student at Texas A&M University at the time of the kitchen catastrophe, even heard people talking about it in College Station. “The story made it all the way to A&M,” Margaret says.
Over the years, family members encouraged Margaret to write the story down; in 2024, she did. By this time, Margaret was a successful author of three published children’s books, so she wrote her account with children in mind. Instead of portraying herself and her siblings as young adults, she made them children in the book. When book publishers told her it was an anecdote rather than a children’s story, Margaret embellished the tale, setting it in a diverse Houston neighborhood. “What do you have for Thanksgiving when the ham blows up?” Margaret asks. In her book, a Venezuelan cousin, a Ukrainian colleague and a Chinese neighbor come to the rescue, bringing tamales, pumpkin empanadas, sashimi and fried rice for an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner. “Many times,” Margaret says, “the first way we are introduced to a culture is through their food.” Inspired by a magazine about mission work she saw at her church, Margaret quoted Revelation 7:9 at the end of the book: “…there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne…”
Margaret worked with Blueberry Illustrations to complete the book. “They were wonderful,” she says. In early 2025, she published The Ham Grenade Holiday, which is available on Amazon.
Margaret’s family moved from Haynesville, Louisiana to Sweeny (south of Houston) when Margaret was a sophomore in high school. “I never fit in,” Margaret admits. “I moved from one tiny little town to another tiny little town. I couldn’t wait to go to college.” She often thought about her Aunt Freida, whom she looked up to, both literally and figuratively. “She was really tall, very thin, and stayed perfectly groomed all the time,” Margaret says. “She had beautiful blond hair. I thought, ‘goodness, she looks like Candice Bergen.’ She had a master’s degree in library science. I wanted to be like her.”
So, Margaret enrolled at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where she earned a degree in library science. It was a perfect fit. “I love books, and I love kids,” she says. While a student at SHSU, Margaret wrote a children’s book about a Manx cat, based on the stray calico Manx her family adopted when she was a child. “It was the first time I ever wrote anything,” she says. She later took some creative writing classes at Lone Star College, which she enjoyed. “They would give us a prompt, and we would write about that,” she says. “They always picked mine to read because I have a wild imagination.”
After college, Margaret first worked as a genealogy librarian at a large public library in Austin. There, she looked at photo negatives all day, holding them up to the light to identify them. “They put me in the back room, and I am a people person,” she says, “so that wasn’t the job for me.” Margaret, however, soon found her career niche as a public-school librarian. Over the next 30 years, she worked in elementary, junior high, and high school libraries in Spring, Angleton, and Klein school districts, ultimately retiring from Aldine schools.
In 1999, Margaret learned about a new children’s writing program at Vermont College. Based on the merits of her writing, Margaret earned a small scholarship. She enrolled in the program, doing intensive work during the summers in Vermont and finishing her other work online. She ultimately earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children. Eric Kimmel, one of the instructors, became Margaret’s lifelong mentor. Eric has written more than 150 children’s books; his 1989 book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins was a Caldecott Honor Book.
At one point, Eric asked Margaret if she had any ideas for a children’s book. She replied that she had carefully researched the life of Ima Hogg, the daughter of Jim Hogg, who was the governor of Texas in the late 1800s. Margaret was fascinated by the story of the governor’s two ostriches. (He raised them hoping he could sell their feathers, which were popular women’s clothing accessories at the time.) Ima’s three brothers dared her to ride one of the ostriches, which she did; however, one of her brothers spooked the ostrich with a slingshot, and the frightened bird bucked Ima. Eric, who had heard of Ima Hogg, said, “There’s your book.”
And indeed it was. The first printing of Ima and the Great Ostrich Race, illustrated by Auburn University professor and renowned artist Bruce Dupree, sold out in 2002 and went into a second printing. “It’s 20 years old now,” Margaret says, “but it’s my favorite.”
A few years after publication, Margaret’s publisher heard about the textbook magnate McGraw Hill’s plan to create a supplemental reader for fourth graders called Texas Treasures. The company was looking for stories about Texas heroines, so Margaret’s publisher submitted Ima and the Great Ostrich Race for consideration. The complete book, including illustrations, was selected for publication in the textbook, and Margaret was rewarded with a substantial royalty check. “That was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she says.
Margaret has also had two other books published by publishing houses, including The Wild Texas Stampede, published in 2008, which is also about Ima Hogg, and Olé Cinco de Mayo, which was published in 2013. Margaret has also written a chapter book about Ima Hogg, Tomahawks and Taffy, which she hopes to have published.
Margaret’s father, Lt. Kenneth E. Marsh, saw intense combat with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, participating in the D-Day invasion and the Battle of Nijmegen; however, he didn’t talk much about his military service during Margaret’s childhood. She was nearly grown when she saw a photograph of a fresh, pronounced scar that ran all the way around her father’s shoulder, and he told Margaret about a combat medic’s hasty stitches. In later years, Margaret says, he attended reunions of his WWII unit, where he reminisced with his paratrooper friends. He also traveled to France for the 40th and 50th anniversaries of D-Day. In July 2025, Margaret visited France herself, both to see the invasion beaches and pay tribute to her father.
Inspired by the dogs that became mascots of airborne units (including her father’s), Margaret wrote yet another children’s book. In her story, Earthbound to Airborne, a dog tries to protect his master from the dangers of jumping but ultimately learns to enjoy being a parapup.
Margaret seems to have limitless energy. In addition to her writing, she volunteers at the Montgomery County Central Library. She is also a Master Gardener and is a contributing writer to The Courier’s gardening column. She even creates soap, like her pig-shaped “Ima Hogg Wash,” which she sells at craft bazaars. She especially likes to spend time with her daughter Meghan Scank and her two grandchildren, Olivia (named after Margaret) and Grady.
