Only one of two trilogies (Nora’s Born In would be the other!) that I’ve read back-to-back-to-back. I even remember where I was when I read all the Texas books - 2001 in San Francisco for the ALA (American Library Association)…
Argh, this is making me crazy! It sounds familiar to me too. I looked up a ton of books by Joan Lowery Nixon, Betty Ren Wright, Lois Duncan and Eve Bunting—nothing sounds right. Bleah.