Growing up on Long Island
and in new Hampshire, Sylvia Bennett White had no inkling that she
would become one of America's foremost herb experts. She transferred
to Rice from Barnard College in New York City in the middle of her
sophomore year with entirely different plans. "I dreamed of being
the next Perry Mason," she says with laugh. At Rice, she took
an area of major in legal studies. "I wanted a solid standing
from which to apply to law school, so I took every class I could that
would give me a background to the law. I was fascinated by it."
 One
of the reasons Sylvia came to Rice was because her father's side
of the family was from Texas and he always wanted one of his children
to go Rice. "I was the last of in line of five children,"
she explains, "so it was up to me to fulfill his dream."
She also appreciated Rice's smaller size. "It was a lot steadier
foundation for learning than the frenetic race I experienced in
New York," says former Hanszen College member. "It was
a very caring environment." She especially remembers professor
of Philosophy Baruch Brody. "He always had time whenever I
needed to talk with him. Now that I'm in the work-a-day world, I
appreciate more than ever that he took time not just to answer my
question but to find out who I was."
After Sylvia graduated
from Rice, she went to law school at Texas Tech, but there her dreams
of being the next Perry Mason evaporated. "I was miserably
disappointed," she says. "Studying about the law is very
different from learning the law." She changed to business
and earned an M.B.A. in finance and marketing in 1981.
Although her desire to
be a lawyer was finally arrested, she never lost here two other
life-long interests: writing and cooking. "Writing has been
a common thread throughout my life. As a youngster, I even had an
article published in Highlights for Children. Writing fulfills
my eagerness to learn more, to meet people, and to express myself."
Her maternal grandfather, a professor of English at Columbia University,
was a major influence. "He wrote several books," she says,
"and I looked toward him for a great deal of support and encouragement."
Her love of cooking was
inspired by her father and grandmother. "They were very affected
by the Depression in their use of foods," she says. "Dishes
had to be economical and nutritious, yet they always valued attractiveness
in what we ate. That taught me to be resourceful and creative in
meeting this very basic need. Also, meals were a very social time
when we all got together at the the table to share. That has carried
through to my own personal family."
Sylvia found a job in
the oil industry and, by 1983, was a senior financial analyst for
a company in Houston. That same year,she met William Varney while
going to church at St. Luke's.
Bill Varney had always
been interested in plants and gardening. "When I was eight,
I asked my parents for a greenhouse for my birthday," he admits,
chuckling. Although originally from the Oklahoma Panhandle, he grew
up in Houston. While he was in high school, his grandfather became
ill and needed help working the farm in Oklahoma, so Bill moved
back there to lend a hand.
After high school, Bill
attended Oklahoma Panhandle State University, where he earned a
degree in business and horticulture. By then, his grandparents had
died, and wanderlust bit him.
"I sold everything I owned, and I went to Australia and worked
there on a ranch for a year," he says. He then returned to
Houston, where he was employed as a buyer for Cornelius Nurseries
when he met Sylvia. The couple married in 1984.
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by:
Christopher Dow
photos by:
Tommy LaVergne
Originally
Published in
Sallyport
The Magazine
of Rice University
Summer 2001
Click on any of
the small photos
to view full size
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