Fulton sisters honor mother with cookbook

Don Norfleet/FULTON SUN photo: Gary Douglas, Fulton, checks out a cookbook, "A Patchwork of Love," he bought Saturday from Pat O'Rourke and Marianne Stone, both of Fulton. The sisters appeared a a book signing at the Gift Shop in Fulton. The book is a tribute to their mother, Mabel Murphy, and 125 Callaway County quilters who collected recipes for the cookbook.
Don Norfleet/FULTON SUN photo: Gary Douglas, Fulton, checks out a cookbook, "A Patchwork of Love," he bought Saturday from Pat O'Rourke and Marianne Stone, both of Fulton. The sisters appeared a a book signing at the Gift Shop in Fulton. The book is a tribute to their mother, Mabel Murphy, and 125 Callaway County quilters who collected recipes for the cookbook.

Two Fulton sisters who honored their mother by creating a cookbook with her prized recipes were busy Saturday signing autographed copies at a book-signing event at the Gift Shop in Fulton.

The two sisters autographing the cookbook were Pat O'Rourke and Marianne Stone, the daughters of Mabel Nevins Murphy of Fulton.

Visitors to the store also were treated to a variety of cookies that came from recipes in the book.

The cookbook is a collection of recipes assembled from around the world by a total of more than 125 quilters who gathered at Murphy's home in Fulton on a regular basis.

"We sold more than 300 cookbooks in less than three weeks and we had to reorder the cookbook," Stone said.

Titled "A Patchwork of Love," the self-published book was printed by Cookbook Publishers Inc., P.O. Box 15920, Lenexa, Kan.

Mabel Murphy grew up in New Bloomfield and graduated from high school there.

O'Rourke said in 1976 Joyce Williams, a member of the Futon Art League, asked her mother to teach a six-week class to women who wanted to learn how to quilt. They met at her home for six weeks and continued to be welcomed back for the next 20 years. In all, more than 125 women learned how to quilt in Mabel's home. They included women from Mabel's Baptist Church along with teachers and staff from the Missouri School for the Deaf. Some of the women added recipes from all over the world.

In 1989 Mabel was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National endowment for the Arts. She was interviewed by Marjorie Hunt and Boris Weintraub for an article that appeared in "National Geographic" magazine. The article, "Masters of Traditional Arts," appeared in the January 1991 issue. Murphy's photos and information are on pages 88 and 89 of the magazine.

A selection of quilt patterns acts as dividers for recipes in the cookbook. O'Rourke says the cookbook contains prized recipes not only from Callaway County but also from Russia, Germany and numerous other nations from around the world.