Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston

As the great-great-granddaughter of Sam Houston and Margaret Lea, Madge Thornall Roberts played in her great-grandparents’ home in Independence, Texas, which had Santa Anna’s saddle in the upstairs hall, the San Jacinto sword over the mantle, and where she kept her doll’s clothes in an old chest of Margaret Lea’s. Trunks of documents sat unattended in the barn. Some of those papers later were burned, and what remained were divided among descendants. Madge Roberts has gathered these document...