When Hallie Crawford Stillwell died on August 18, 1997, she was two months and two days short of her 100th birthday. Hallie had published the first volume of her memoirs, "I'll Gather My Geese, " in 1991. In that volume she told the story of her life as a pioneer ranch woman and wife in the Big Bend country from the time of her marriage in 1918 to the death of her husband Roy Stillwell in 1948.

Big Bend resident rancher Hallie Stillwell has added her voice and favorite chili recipe to her friend Frank X. Tolbert's classic book, "A Bowl of Red."
Written by the late Dallas newspaper columnist and author, "A Bowl of Red" is an entertaining history of the peppery cowboy cuisine. This new printing of the book is based on Tolbert's 1972 revised edition, in which he describes the founding of the World Championship Chili Cookoff, now held annually in the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas.
Hallie Stillwell was one of the three judges at the first Terlingua cookoff, held in 1967. "We...