Educated in the "Texas state of mind" she never questioned that she'd spend her life telling the stories about the state and the people who make its past, present, and future.

Meet Texas History and Houston History Author Lora-Marie Bernard at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 4, 2024, when Mister McKinney of Mister McKinney's Historic Houston opens the fall season with enchanting stories about Texas. View the show on Facebook or Instagram on his free, online program that also highlights history happenings at The Heritage Society.

About the Author

Lora-Marie Bernard writes nonfiction books about Texas. She has been called one of the state's best storytellers by Texana Reads. 

She was the 2018 recipient of the Dan Parkinson Literary Award for her efforts to preserve Texas culture through literature. She is the 2020 recipient of the Catherine Munson Foster Memorial Award for Literature in recognition of her efforts to increase the public’s understanding of Texas and its people.

During her time as a Texas-based journalist and communicator, she won numerous Associated Press awards and national press honors for her public affairs and investigative reporting. Early in her career, she earned the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

As a Washington D.C. field correspondent, she served as an international radio commentator, journalist and photographer for the 2017 Trump presidential campaign, the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate Race, the Washington D.C. Women's March, and Hurricane Harvey.

She earned her master’s degree in liberal arts extension studies from Harvard University in 2018. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. She is the Vice President of the Southeast Texas Museum. She also serves as an international Corporate Board member for the Alumnae-i Network for Harvard Women. 

Meet the Author of Ghosts of Houston's Market Square Park

Sandra Lord will be autographing her book and sharing encounters about historic Downtown Houston from 1 PM - 4 PM in the museum gallery. Enjoy treats in the gallery or go on our haunted sighting tours…if you dare.

Visitors to Market Square Park can pause on their stroll through the downtown centerpiece for a palpable experience of its past. Houston’s first four city halls laid their foundations here, and relics of the square’s heritage remain embedded in the sidewalks of the park. Chalk up a chance sneeze on Milam Street to the final ghostly gasp of dust from Robert Boyce’s sawpits. Step from Congress Street into La Carafe, Houston’s oldest commercial building, for the kind of atmosphere that even deceased bartenders are reluctant to leave. From the phantom tailors above Treebeard’s to the forgotten mysteries of the town’s founding, Sandra Lord and Debe Branning resurrect the history humming through the four blocks surrounding Market Square Park.