Writing and doing research today, I discovered the “Great Texas Women” website http://texaswomen.housing.utexas.edu/with the following:
The song, “Standing Before Us,” was discovered by Floyd Hoelting at St. Scholastica Convent in Fort Smith, Arkansas. For decades, this community of Benedictine nuns has sung the song in celebration of those before them. It is used in the gallery with kind permission of the author, Carole Etzler, to honor Texas women who came before us and to remind us of the importance of women to Texas greatness and how they will continue to impact the future of Texas.
“Standing Before Us”
These are the women who throughout the decades have led us and helped us to know where we have come from and where we are going, the women who’ve helped us to grow.
(Chorus) Standing before us, making us strong, lending their wisdom to help us along, sharing a vision, sharing a dream, touching our thoughts, touching our lives like a deepflowing stream— touching our thoughts, touching our lives like a deep-flowing stream.
These are the women who joined in the struggle, angry and gentle and wise. These are the women who called us to action, who called us to open our eyes.
These are the women who nurtured our spirits, the ones on whom we could depend. These are the women who gave us their courage, our mentors, our sisters, our friends.
These are a few of the women who led us. We know there have been many more. We name but a few, yet we honor them all, those women who went on before.