We love cspan. It is not too often that we have a true hollywood celebrity at our luncheon so we are thrilled to have Janine Turner today. You know her well from her role as Maggie Oconnell in the in the awardwinning tv series northern exposure. She received three golden globe award nomination and and any nomination for her role in the series. She also starred in the lifetime series, strong medicine. She produced and directed a short films darling her dollar daughter, julie at. She starred in numerous movies and highly rated films for television. She even coproduced and starred in a yoga video. [laughter] she has been named People Magazines 50 most beautiful people, and esquire magazines women we love. She received the women at work award from the National Commission on working women. She recently moved to new york city, but is still a proud texan and owns a ranch there. Janine has decided to add author to her resume. Her brandnew book is titled holding her head high and tells the story of 12 extraordinary single mothers who have changed history. Chapter one is about st. Helena i guess in who lived in the days of the roman empire and was the single mother of constantine. There is a chapter on abigail adams, who was a single mother for many years while her husband was off during the revolutionary war. My favorite chapter is about eleanor pruitt stewart, a single mother who became a woman homesteader in wyoming in the early 1900s, and who janine describes as like a piece of quickly spearmint gum after garlic pasta. [laughter] copies of her book will be for sale after her remarks. I think she will sign them for you. I hope you will be able to pick up a copy. Janine is wearing a rose on her lapel to signify beauty, graciousness, and all that is good about womanhood. What a perfect fit. She has taken on such important topics and we are pleased to have her tell us more about it today. To hear a woman of great faith and many accomplishments, please welcome me in and join me in welcoming Janine Turner. [laughter] [applause] janine thank you for having me. I would like to thank the Heritage Foundation and claire booth policy institute. I also have to thank my daughter julia, and my mother, janet, and my dear friend cathy gillespie. Where is barbara . Thank you. I have to talk about People Magazine plus 50 beautiful. It always cracks me up. People magazines 50 most beautiful. It always cracks me up. It is one of those things that i was in new york city at 15 as a young model, and i was in hollywood at 17. I always felt like something was sort of missing. No matter how many magazine covers or in these you are nominated for in memmys you are nominated for, i feel like god has given me a purpose and a voice, but they are not what it is all about. Anyway, it is an honor to be here. I just want to say to each one of you out there that this is a woman possible women possibled book. Womens book. I am a single mother. My book i am also profamily. I am not endorsing single motherhood with my book. Life sometimes throws you curveballs. There are statistics in the 2003 senses that 43 of mothers in america are single mothers. It is higher now. That is almost half of mothers in america doing it alone. That is a lot of mothers. The definition of single mothers is broad. It is a modernday phenomenon. I believe that very few women really choose it and we should have compassion for single mothers. Girls daydream that i am going to raise kids by myself, or im going to be divorced with four kids i am trying to feed myself. Someone told me i should write a book. I thought how i should go about doing that. I have a daughters privacy to protect. I was doing some research. I never really thought about it. It on on me that my publisher told me that was the story. Go write it. I thought ok. I had never written a book before, but i always love to write. I started researching and went to the library and said how am i going to fill the pages of a book. I did not think i would have enough information. I found a wealth of women and my book spans 18 centuries. These women i called them the go girls of their era. My daughter is going to school in dallas. I was driving her from fort worth to school every day. I wanted to find an office but not spend a lot of money. People think im weird when i say that. Im like, right, where will i do that. Where will i find this office . I turn the corner and went one block from my Daughters School and i found an office for rent, a dilapidated, old building. He opens up the door and it was a storage room, no windows. I said, how much . He said 100. I said deal. I researched all these women and i believe god guided me to these women. It was a fascinating experience. They came to life and sat with me on the chair. I found myself crying with them, laughing with them, rallying with them to victory. They all had some similar themes in their lives. They all championed their children. The gift that god had given them. They did not have any guilt about the fact that they could be a strong, courageous woman, a woman fulfilling destiny for god and country, and their kids would be ok too. They all have these divorces, widows, one woman chose to be a single mother. Her story was unbelievable. All their circumstances were different. They all went through a really devastating time in their life. They were faced with these decisions and these roads weve all been there. I have been there. Hollywood seems glamorous, and yet i have taken my daughter to see my old apartment, and there was the same mcdonalds. As we are walking back and forth , i said julia, i was 15 years old. I would open my book, call my agent, and he would give me eight auditions a day. All day long, i would go backandforth backandforth no, no no, no, no, yes, no, no, no. 12 years of my career, i heard no thousands of times. It is a relentless sort of glutton for punishment, i guess to be in the business. There was aflame inside of me. I hit this real lull, but this is my professional one. I was 27 years old, doing it for 12 years. I had eight dollars left. I had been flown out to nbc for this role that i knew i was destined to get. One of the things i say in my book is that god sees eternity in perspective. Often we see the threads. It was a time select pilot, she was a lawyer, for different auditions for the studios network, flown out the hollywood, nbc, didnt get it. I came back home and was on my knees crying sobbing i had been doing this for 12 years. I wanted a new agent. I remember being on my knees in that apartment and got spoke to me. He said, there is aflame. I give you a flame. Dont let any negativity, any circumstance, have faith, you have the flame, dont let anyone extinguish it. I was still feeling down and out and i got this call from northern exposure. My sister and law was in town. I literally dragged myself to this audition. I open up the door and there is a camera. Im 27 years old. I said, you have to come with me. Now im 27 thinking i dont know if i can do it. The casting director said to me we saw all the best people last week. I thought that that will raise my spirits. Im just sobbing on park avenue, i cant act. She is saying, i thought it was really good. They said we are going to fly you to los angeles again and im having dry heaves i got northern exposure. The tom selleck pilot that i thought i had to have did not get picked up. Northern exposure went on to be a success for five years and it was my most cherished role of my career. The whole point is that i went through some really dark times. I had to make a choice. I chose to continue to show up and not let other people define my selfworth. I find that this is amazing. When you step out for morals integrity, and faith, theyre going to be those who try to take that away from you. All of women in this book have that, the moment where they had to choose. One of the women in my book is really fantastic. She was from the middle ages. How can you relate to these women . I sprinkle it with my story and there are life lessons. Tribulations through the trams. The triumphs. There is this girl, she was educated. They moved to france. All of a sudden, everybody died, king, husband, father, and she was left all alone with three children. She had to go she was like, oh, my gosh. She was terribly depressed. Everyone is taking her to court. She talks about how the lawyers were trying to intimidate her and make her give in. Im thinking, gosh, this is like today. All her furniture and belongings were taken out of her home. She had no money. She got terribly ill. She wanted to run off and join the monastery and become a n un. She realized that she had been educated, so she picked up her pen and started to write. The first poem in the book is all and my its very sad. She had a gift she realized. She had to market her gift. She said that she would send all her works to the kings and queens of the world. They were so impressed that she started to make money. She became the first female professional writer of the middle ages. Then, she was really angry that women were being treated so horribly. There were such prejudices. The women did not know because the women could not read. She became a champion not only for her children, but for women of her lifetime. She reached out and wrote all kinds of inspirational stories. How to teach women to deal with their societies. So that is christina. Helena augusta i have two medieval women, five revolutionary women. Abigail adams is my tribute to the stayathome moms. Especially for those who are now in iraq fighting the war. Abigail is a true american shero. Isnt that cool. I like that word. John adams was gone all the time. He was making the declaration of independence doing peace treaties in europe, and she was left at home inoculating the children, keeping the farm going, watching the troops go by in the wartorn revolutionary time she was in. One of the revolutionary women was the first to be, female printer and editor. She took over the whole business when her husband died. Her husband printed the paper once a week. She printed it twice a week. I go into i have two slave women, Harriet Jacobs was determined that her children were not going to go through the torture she was going through. Her story is phenomenal. She chose to live in an attic where she couldnt even move. She couldnt escape. She couldnt stand up. She peered at her children through little holes because she wanted her children to have a better life than she had. My title for her is, dont give up before the miracle. I reflect upon her life at each stage. Im sure she did not feel like she had any miracles, but she did have little miracles. The miracle was she could hear the voices and at the end, the big miracle occurred. And then i have she truly was, and the guess i will stop because i can talk for hours about these women. The first formal woman to run for president on the equal rights party ballot went out there as a womens suffragist. She to it across the Country First woman to be admitted to the bar. She fought for five years to make it happen. They kept saying, you are a woman. They said, you cant be on the United States supreme court. There is no president. She said how can you have a president if you never allow a woman to be on the court. So she fought for five years to have a bill passed through and she became the first woman we are in washington, d. C. After all, right . Its amazing considering women could not even vote. Women during these times did not have a voice. They werent in charge of their own money. They did not have a right to their own money, their children. They didnt have antibiotics, communication, or government handouts, but they found a way to stand out with dignity, faith, and compassion. I call these women the formother. S. How great that god help me find these women so i could share them with other women. I will in with elder stewart. She is my comedic relief. What i loved about her she was a poor old orphan from oklahoma. Her teacher who taught her how to write was hung from it tree as a horse thief. She ended up marrying it wasnt clear if they split or they got divorced as there are two different records and she had a little girl. She was shoveling coal as a housekeeper and getting real sick. She heard about wyoming and that she could go out there and homestead if you are single. You could not if you were married, but if you are single you could. Lockwood at the end of her life help to architect the bill that gave women the right a good cap. She said she was going to go to wyoming. She was visiting with a christian outreach there. They help her figure out how to do it. She wrote about her journey. She picked up her twoyearold, got on a train, went to wyoming, and wrote these hilarious stories. She was like a female or rogers. She saw the good in everybody. He was like a female for a roger forroy rogers. I have a ranch in texas with horses and longhorn cattle and dogs that we rescue. She would pick her daughter up, put her on the back of the horse , and they would go riding to the plains of wyoming. They did not know where they were going. They camped out, catch fish skin fish, and cook the fish. She had to have something to eat. They would get on the train the next day and write again. She would run into neighbors and stop and help them. She had a passion for everyone she met. She was a great volunteer. She championed others. All these women were stewards of their wounds. They reached out. They turned around and shared how they can help others. I got to this and i will help you get through this. Thats why i say they changed history. They all did change the course of history. You know, what else can i say . I dont know. Thank you for having me here. I could talk about this book forever, men as well and all the great things that men have done for our country but i also rally for women and all that we have accomplished, how far we have,. Look with these women did and they didnt have a right to vote, a voice money, werent educated, couldnt work so look at what we can do now. We are just beginning to have our impact on the world. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it very much. [applause] michelle it is a wonderful book. You should get it. Janine has agreed to do a question and answer have a microphone, do we not . Yes. Why dont you call on people. Katie collins is our intern here with the university of dallas. Janine yea, texas. My name is amy jones. Im an attorney. Could you talk about the role of Christian Faith and these womens lives. What is your favorite episode . Janine i do talk about my faith. I am a christian. They all had a Christian Faith. Some were very intense, Isabella Graham was an evangelist who became the first director of an organized philanthropy. I didnt set out to write a book like that, but i found when i was sprinkling each story with my philosophy that it such a part of me that i had to. They were the foundations for my child. That she has that foundation to go out and face all the obstacles she will, against. If we dont give them a guidebook of principles, then i think the words sending them out so, yes, there is definitely a theme in my book with regard to that. My favorite episode . There were so many. One of my favorites was called burning down the house. My mother came to visit and ended up burning down the house. My mother never burn down my house. That is when chris decides he wants to playing fling a towel. A a cow. You have said so many things about the mothers. What is the best information or advice you would give single mothers today . Janine i talk about in my book that Alexander Hamiltons mother she was the most mistreated of all women. She was imprisoned by her husband. I cant really say that. You can even describe what they went through. Her life was filled with a lot of sorrow, victim to gossip thrown in jail with no ability to get herself out, and look at her son, alexander hamilton. I think that you have the scenario which is also important, but dont let anybody else to find your selfworth. Thats what i say in her chapter they need that. I dont inc. The children of single mothers need to be labeled in any way. I dont think the children of single mothers need to be labeled in any way. If its not there, dont let any one else define your selfworth. The second thing is that i think i read the bible in one year. I walked away learning two things. That i am forgiven to the degree that i forgive, and to not judge others. You never knew know who god is going to work for. Look at the saints. They became saints later. We get a kick out of paul. We think he is hilarious. So dramatic. Where is he going with this . [laughter] janine i dont know where i was going with that. I find that if you are in a church that is not some forwarding you, find another church. Those are my two. My name is mary walker. I am a lawyer in town. I dont know if you research for the book and if its only americans, but did you consider including Winston Churchills mother . She was a single mother for much of the time. I wondered about that. Obviously she had a son worth remembering. Janine i didnt know that. That would have been awesome. Thats my second book. [laughter] janine i thought i had to turn in 116,000 words. It turns out they only wanted 78,000 words. I turned in 116,000 words. I ran out of room. Im going to go research her. Anybody else . What is it like in hollywood for a woman of faith we read all of this incisional things in the paper, but what is it like working out there . Janine being a conservative as well . Double whammy. It is hard to know really if i lose out on getting jobs because no one is going to tell me that. No one is going to tell me that theyre not hiring me because im a republican or christian. I think it is difficult at times. I dont drink either. I would sit back and watch the wrap parties and people having a good time. I would say that you dont feel like you are part of the in club. Jane fonda would have all these parties when i was first in hollywood. I watched my costars and friends going off to jane fondas for really have potties. Really hip parties. Im a republican, not a democrat. I was never going to sacrifice what i believe personally for me and my country to get ahead in my career. I think that a lot of people are closet republicans. They dont want to really come forward. You know, hollywood either except me for who i am or they dont. Im not a part of the in group on the set. It is a little tricky, but i think there are more people who are stepping up a little bit. I would go to the awards and the whole awards serve money would be bashing republicans. It gets a little old at times. Michelle how does new york compared to hollywood for you . Janine that is one thing. I left hollywood i had to doing strong medicine for lifetime. I moved when my daughter was two years old in 2000. I was there for two years. It sort of broke my heart because i was missing my daughter so much. I walked away from income and profits of the show and all that because i really wanted to not miss those special times in my daughters life. I homeschooled her for a year which is totally cool. I didnt have to worry about geometry, but we had fun. I realized she is an only child. I cant keep her hostage. I have to let her go to school. I finish this book and i was in texas trying to drum up a living somehow and do all these entrepreneurial projects. We have been home for five years. She is 10 now. These women did not have any guilt about being a working single mother. They just did it. It was ok. They were also inspired by seeing that they fulfill their destiny and opened many more avenues for their child because they were going out and pursuing their gifts, so i finished the book and turned to julia and said, we are moving to new york city. She is a trooper. She said, ok. Getting to the question i prefer new york over los angeles. I find hollywood there is something a little insidious about los angeles. Everyone is in the business. I cant put my finger on it. Im not comfortable there. Im not judging hollywood. There are a lot of good people there. I dont think everyone in hollywood are the devil. I think there are a lot of people in hollywood trying to do great works. They turn out a lot of good movies and a lot of bad movies. I think york offers more diversity and culture, more variety of humanity, a richer environment. Right . Besides we get to go pick up the poop from our dog on the street. I tell that to our friends and they are light, you what . Its just so much fun. [laughter] my mother is thoroughly disgusted. Michelle if i could maybe ask the last question and we will network formally over lunch. What advice would you give a young woman or man who is 15 and was thinking about drama, the theater, being in tv what would your advice to them be . Janine there is a director named john injured he was english, i believe. He says you have to remain tremendously strong about what you know you can do, and never take no for an answer. I think anyone who wants to be there were many times in my career where i thought i was going to give up and do something else. Anything you want to do is going to require a lot of sacrifice but the gift and talent is such a small part of making it in hollywood. There is a tremendous amount of tenacity that has to go along with it. You have to be able to take rejection and criticism, and just believe in yourself and be willing to they say everyone starts out here and they want to be in show business. By the time you get up here, everyone has gone home because it gets too tough. You have to have thick skin. A sense of promotion, marketing, a resiliency that is a big part of making it. A lot of talented people dont ever reach their destination because it is also really tough. There you go. [laughter] michelle thank you. We have some special gifts for you. Here is the official limitededition coffee mug. It is her famous assaying. Janine thank you. Michelle our 2008 great conservative american women calendar. Janine thank you very much. We have two books for you. One book is from jennifer marshall, who directs our domestic policy, making sense of the single life in the 21st century. Thank you so much for being with us today. We have a lunch buffet outside and invite you to join us for informal conversation and networking afterwards. And thank you to all of those who joined us on cspan. [applause] on history bookshelf here from the country cost best writers of the past decade every saturday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. Watch these programs anytime on our website, cspan. Org history. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. American history tvs real america bring you archival films that tell the story of the 20th century. From stem to stern watertight, flameproof compartments. Below the waterline, engine rooms, fuel tanks, magazines packed with enough explosives to blow us all to kingdom come. The deck is like a giant tunnel two blocks long