Welcome to the Houston and Surrounding Area Chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers. We serve the southern half of Texas. If you're a Gold Star mom and would like to meet others in your situation please contact us.

Veterans Day 2007

The City of Houston held their annual Veterans Day parade in downtown Houston on Sunday, November 11, 2007. This year was an outstanding year for attendance by Gold Star Mothers. We had 12 to 14 Mothers participate. Most are members of our beloved organization.

The Gold Star Mothers were recognized in front of an estimated crowd of 30,000 people. We were honored with seating, right at the front of the stage during the ceremony portion of the event. All of the Mothers were then taken by bus to our position in the parade line. DeMontrond Chrysler generously provided six convertible cars for the Mothers with Marines for drivers. DeMontrond was so generous that the Marines were able to pick up the cars on Friday afternoon and use them over the weekend prior to attending the parade!!

From left to right:  Penny George, Armandina Esparza, Maria Selgado, Mary Shepherd (seated in car), Michele Sanderson (kneeling), standing Peggy Slay, Judy Kimble, Laurene Allton, and Christine St Michel (kneeling).

Mary Shepherd, our past Chapter President, was so overcome with joy that so many of us Gold Star Mothers were there. I had never seen her with such a lovely glow! She was so thrilled that we newer Mothers were keeping the AGSM Houston Chapter alive. Mary had knee surgery the following week, and due to complication from the surgery, she went home to God and to rejoin her son Thomas, whom she lost in Vietnam more than 30 years ago. We lost Mary on November 24, 2008.

DeMontrond Motors is also working with us on our fund raiser, raffling off a 2008 Cadillac CTS. Thanks to two very special people with DeMontrond, Ruthie Smith and Nancy Morris and their support of our Military and the AGSM-HSAC, we are confident that our raffle will be a success.