From Pearls to Piano Keys-Four Notes and One Great Story Turns a $750,000 Page at Ladies for Literacy Guild’s 11th Annual Power of Literacy Luncheon

From Pearls to Piano Keys-Four Notes and One Great Story Turns a $750,000 Page at Ladies for Literacy Guild’s 11th Annual Power of Literacy Luncheon

Opera-length pearls, inspired by former First Lady Barbara Bush, adorned the ladies’ fashionable ensembles at the Post Oak Hotel gathering, but the best accessory in the ballroom may have been a good story. Harry Connick Jr. shared one about a boy with a telephone and a mother with a Carnegie Hall-sized dream. The Ladies for Literacy Guild provided the red, white and blue, and more than 750 guests gave the afternoon a fitting ending, one worth putting in print. The 11th Annual Power of Literacy Luncheon raised nearly $750,000 for childhood literacy across Houston.

Co-chairs Jan Rhodes and Sandra Shenkir gave the event a title worthy of a dust jacket, “Stars, Stripes & Stories.” The theme tipped its hat to America’s 250th anniversary, with H-E-B’s red, white and blue floral arrangements carrying the colors from table to table. The hotel’s culinary team handled lunch; the silent auction and the Giving Tree kept generosity front and center. Premier Jewelry Partner Tenenbaum Jewelers gave guests two excellent reasons to try their luck in the raffle. An opera-length pearl necklace had the glamour, while a $5,000 gift certificate left room for a little creative direction of one’s own.

Two students from Barbara Bush Elementary School led the invocation, and Julie Finck, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, served as emcee. Then Houston Public Media’s Ernie Manouse sat down with Connick, whose résumé includes Grammys, Emmys, a Tony nomination and a spot on the bestseller list. The story he brought to lunch began long before any of those credits, with a boy who figured the first step to playing Carnegie Hall was to call and ask.

Connick was about 10 when he made that call. His Bronx-born mother, Anita-Francis Livingston Connick, affectionately known as Babe, had dreamed of hearing her son play there. When she developed ovarian cancer, young Harry took matters into his own hands and went to the box office, where he learned that the people who could get you into Carnegie Hall were in a different line of work from those who could put you onstage. His mother died when he was 13.

It took decades for that childhood phone call to reach its conclusion. On May 22, 2026, the day Babe would have turned 100, Connick made his Carnegie Hall debut with a symphony he wrote in her honor. He chose to skip rehearsing in the hall so he could reserve the moment of sitting at the piano for the performance itself. He told Manouse what happened when that moment arrived.

“I completely forgot how to play, until I hit the notes B-A-B-E.”

Connick, who said he had rarely spoken publicly about his mother, likened his memories of her to snow globes he was afraid to shake. His new book, “BABE: ELABORATIO – A TRIBUTE TO MY MOTHER,” and the music it accompanies gave him a way to share the memories he had kept so carefully. “Life is about these snapshots that we take in the present,” he told the room. He also recalled playing at the White House during George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush’s years there, calling it “one of the great honors of my life.”

Finck connected Babe’s faith in her son with Barbara Bush’s belief that parents could spark a lifelong love of reading. Guild President Deborah Dunkum joined her onstage to close the program and recognize the volunteers and supporters carrying that work forward. Phillips 66 served as Title Sponsor, with ExxonMobil and Rhonda & Kayleigh Graff as Literacy Champion Sponsors.

The nearly $750,000 raised will go to two programs with decidedly different addresses. My Home Library lets children in underserved communities choose books to keep, so a home library can start wherever there’s a little room. The Guild’s four Curiosity Cruisers, operated in partnership with Harris County Public Library, have routes instead of a fixed address, bringing books and reading activities to children and families across the Houston area.

The pearls may have been the longest thing in the ballroom, but the books have farther to go. They’ll turn up on a child’s nightstand, in a backpack, or under a blanket after bedtime —or this day, with a Star, Some Stripes, and a crowded ballroom—right where a good story belongs.

In the Social Scene (not previously mentioned):   Maria Bush, Pierce and Sarahbeth Bush, Lilly Andress, Betty Hrncir, Maggie Austin, Amy Chronis, Sue Conway, Patricia Cornelius, Lesha Elsenbrook, Sidney Faust, Julie Finck, Gail Garland, Rhonda Graff, Maureen Higdon, Mehrnaz Gill, Lisa Jakel, Jenny Joy, Patti Kroll, Laurie Lashier, Julie Little, Anne McClellan, Jeanna Bamburg, Barbie Prusak, Regina Rogers, Mary Sage, Sandra Shenkir, Deborah Stavis, Y. Ping Sun, Pam Wells, Vicki West