Minnie Pearl MOONEYHAM

Minnie married Julian Walker in Kaufman County and had four girls and one son. She divorced in 1911 and moved to Greenville with her parents, where she worked for a doctor and in a department store. She then borrowed money from a sister and moved her family to Dallas to Bryan Street and opened a boarding house. She had already operated a boarding house in Abilene before leaving Walker. Now she returned to working at a job that allowed her independence (with a struggle) and ability to attend to her five children. Probably about that time her father, James, moved to Dallas and built his home at 703 Parkmont. Her daughter, Nannie Kate (Walker) Reimer, retired from Western Union and a second time from General Cable Company, both in Dallas. She was a gifted painter in oil and on porcelain, winning many prizes at the State Fair of Texas. Floyce Lee Walker, who played the accordion, had the first all-woman band in Dallas. When she married Joel Carlton, she followed him to Arizona and camped in the wilds of the mountains with him as he led crews on road-building expeditions in the Apache National Forest, always breaking new roads for the Park Service.The women from this branch of the Mooneyham family were thought of as independent, strong, mechanically able, and ground breakers for women's activities and work styles. In 1913 Minnie (Mooneyham) Walker married Henry George Zahn in Dallas and they had five more children, among them my father, Henry George, Jr. During that time she continued to run a boardinghouse as the children were growing up, and they were able to survive the Great Depression as a family working together. Minnie (Mooneyham) Zahn was a member of the A & M Mother's Club; Past Grand Noble Matron of the Oak Cliff Rebekah Lodge; past officer of the Woodman Circle, Auxiliary of the Woodmen of the World; and member of the East Dallas Christian Church Disciples of Christ.

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