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First of all, a big congratulations on this big commission!
Two things come immediately to mind: your Texas lady should also have some sort of outdoor background to echo this (nicely painted) portrait of her husband, and she should also compositionally compliment him when her portrait hangs next to his. The first thing I'd try here is to compose her leaning (or maybe seated and leaning) against a left vertical of some sort (post? chair? wall?) and try to get some diagonal movement going here.
You can also try to soften the sunlight/shadow value ratio by hanging a sheet of sheer cloth or plastic and placing her in it's "shadow". Or you can try backlighting and prepare to model her in the unlit face. Or you can try "dappling" her with foliage shade. Personally, I think mature women tend to look better when you can carefully light their faces indoors, but I would have some patio or landscape background to get the outdoors feeling in your painting.
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