Sarah Hudson-Pierce - Ritz Publications of Shreveport

Ritz Publications of Shreveport

In 2002, Hudson-Pierce launched, on a shoestring budget, Ritz Publications, named for her maternal great grandfather Nicholas Ritz, who came to the United States in 1851 from Bern, Switzerland. Her first selection was the rejuvenation of a rare out-of-print book titled Poems by Julia Pleasants Creswell, the great-grandmother of the late Shreveport Mayor James C. Gardner. Ritz also released two more of Julia Creswell's books: Aphelia and Other Poems and Callamura. Hudson-Pierce has also published two volumes of Jim Gardner's memoirs entitled Jim Gardner and Shreveport.

Successful Ritz books have included: Stone Justice (2001) by Debi King McMartin and Lyn Morgan, which details the tragic life of Toni Jo Henry of Shreveport, who on November 28, 1942, became the only woman ever to have been executed in Louisiana's electric chair. Henry's story has been compared to that of Karla Faye Tucker in Texas, executed in 1998. The motion picture The Pardon, filmed in Shreveport, is adapted from Stone Justice.

Still another Ritz publication, Will Somebody Call the Coroner?, is an autobiography of Caddo Parish Coroner Dr. Willis P. Butler (1888–1963), with the preface by the Shreveport historian Eric John Brock (1966-2011). Ritz Publications also offers Sarah Dorsey's Recollections of Henry Watkins Allen, a study of Louisiana's Confederate States of America governor. Dorsey owned the Biloxi estate Beauvoir and was a benefactor of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Another Ritz release is Tinkerbelle, the story of Robert Manry (1918–1971), a Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) copy editor who in 1965 solo-navigated the smallest sailboat ever across the Atlantic. Ritz offers a rare book, Our Baby's History (1898), by the American artist Frances Brundage (1854–1937), who was particularly known for her depictions of wide-eyed Victorian children.

In 2009, Ritz published Jerry Wray: Pioneer Artist Of The South by Shreveport artist Jerry Wray. That same year, Ritz published Mama's Boys, a novel by Matt Whitehead, a journalist and a former child protective services worker. Another 2009 publication is Investing Without A Net a collection of short vignettes by Shreveport author Larry LaBorde, the owner of a silver trading company and a local family-owned oil business.

In 2010, Ritz published an autobiography of Virginia Shehee, the businesswoman from Shreveport who served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976 to 1980. The book has a coffee-table format with an introduction by former Mayor James Gardner, one of Shehee's classmates at Alexander Elementary School and C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. The book is titled Virginia Kilpatrick Shehee: First Lady of Shreveport.

In 2012, Ritz published the autobiography of George Dement, the former mayor of Bossier City, entitled George Dement: I will, If you will, Saith the Lord. The introduction is written by former Governor Edwin Edwards.

Ritz Publications is acting as publicist for the inspirational book, Valerie, Jasmine Morelock-Field's biography of her daughter, Valerie Morelock, who was murdered in 1973 on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge. Morelock-Field turns a tragedy into a story of hope by placing all of her trust in God. She was interviewed in 2012 by Donna LaFleur on Louisiana Public Broadcasting's "Authors in Shreveport" feature at the Louisiana State Exhibit Building Museum. Jasmine Morelock-Field was also interviewed on Rick Rowe's Promise of Hope by KTBS-TV, the ABC outlet in Shreveport.

Ritz is the publisher for Home to Holly Grove: Cherishing Our Rich Heritage, by Frances Swayzer Conley, an English professor at Bossier Parish Community College. The book is a pictorial family history of the Holly Grove Colored Baptist Church in Wisner in Franklin Parish in northeastern Louisiana. The church was established after the American Civil War by one of Swayzer's ancestors.

Another book available throuth Ritz is Gardening to Attract Butterflies: The Beauty and the Beast by Loice Kendrick-Lacy of Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish. The book begins with Kendrick-Lacy as a young girl introduced to butterflies by her grandmother.

Ritz is also the publicist for James Robertson's biography of his brother, Phil Alexander Robertson, from the Arts and Entertainment Network television series, Duck Dynasty. The book is entitled The Legend Of The Duck Commander. In 2012, James Robertson was interviewed on LPB's "Authors in Shreveport" feature at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum.

In 2013, Ritz is publishing the World War II memoir, A Time to Remember by Ken Cochran.