Matriarch: A Memoir

Tina Knowles reflects on the presence and absence of mothers in a daughter’s life. She then recalls a dream she had when she was four years old that she and her mother, Agnes Derouen Buyince, visited Galveston Beach. When she woke up, the house was warm; often there was no heat when Agnes was in the hospital—Agnes was sick throughout Knowles’s childhood and in and out of hospitals.

Knowles grew up in a two-bedroom house with her parents, her three brothers Larry, Butch, and Skip, and sister Flo. Knowles was the youngest. Her given name was Celstine Ann, but everyone called her Tenie or Badass Tenie B. She was feisty and energetic and her siblings often “didn’t want to be bothered with her” (xvii). Most days after her siblings left for school, Agnes took Knowles to pick pecans. Under the magical branches of the pecan tree, Knowles could ask Agnes anything. She once asked her why she and her siblings’ last names all had different spellings, including Buyince, Beyincé, Buoyancy, and Beyoncé. Agnes explained that the hospital had misspelled on their birth certificates and refused to change it.