Article Terry Martin Hekker, Whose First Book Praised Stay-at-Home Moms, Dies at 92
Article Terry Martin Hekker, Whose First Book Praised Stay-at-Home Moms, Dies at 92
Nov 21 2025, 9:23 AM
Quote:Her first book, published in 1979 was called “Ever Since Adam & Eve: The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood in the Age of Do-Your-Own-Thing.” It touted the gifts of motherhood and the rewards of housekeeping in an era where women had long come to accept feminist philosophies espoused decades earlier by a former Grandview-on-Hudson neighbor named Betty Friedan.
The book garnered national attention, appearances on talk shows like “Today” and interviews with the likes of Charlie Rose and Dinah Shore.
Then, after 40 years of marriage, a divorce left her bereft and broke.
The experience bred another book, a sequel of sorts to the first, that was published in 2009. It was called “Disregard First Book.”
Appreciate that she was courageous enough to acknowledge her mistake.
First NY Times opinion essay: (1977)
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/20/archives/the-satisfactions-of-housewifery-and-motherhood-in-an-age-of.html
Second (2006, post-divorce)
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/fashion/sundaystyles/paradise-lost-domestic-division.html
Audio interview with her in 2006:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2006/01/12/a-warning-from-a-desperate-houswife
Edited Nov 21 2025, 9:27 AM by eyeswideopen.
eyeswideopen
Nov 21 2025, 9:23 AM #1Quote:Her first book, published in 1979 was called “Ever Since Adam & Eve: The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood in the Age of Do-Your-Own-Thing.” It touted the gifts of motherhood and the rewards of housekeeping in an era where women had long come to accept feminist philosophies espoused decades earlier by a former Grandview-on-Hudson neighbor named Betty Friedan.
The book garnered national attention, appearances on talk shows like “Today” and interviews with the likes of Charlie Rose and Dinah Shore.
Then, after 40 years of marriage, a divorce left her bereft and broke.
The experience bred another book, a sequel of sorts to the first, that was published in 2009. It was called “Disregard First Book.”
Appreciate that she was courageous enough to acknowledge her mistake.
First NY Times opinion essay: (1977)
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/20/archives/the-satisfactions-of-housewifery-and-motherhood-in-an-age-of.html
Second (2006, post-divorce)
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/fashion/sundaystyles/paradise-lost-domestic-division.html
Audio interview with her in 2006:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2006/01/12/a-warning-from-a-desperate-houswife
