ENGLISH-SOCIOLOGY
Prepared at South Highland Academy
Letters
December 3, 1924
February 2, 1930
Clippings
1929, Page 1 (418 KB)
1929, Page 2 (739 KB)
1929, Page 3 (507 KB)
1929, Page 4 (342 KB)
Handwritten Excerpt (24 KB)
1904 Program:
Present Address: Cullom Place, Birmingham, Alabama
June 1904 Kalends:
Helen Hendrix and Molly Cullom will attend a house party at Asbury Park, given by Bess De Bow, during the latter part of June.
May 1905 Kalends:
Mollie Cullom will be married in May to Mr. Walker, a member of the Birmingham bar.
February 1906 Kalends:
Mollie Cullom Walker, '03, has been visiting Helen Hendrix, '03, at her home in Kansas City, Missouri.
March 1914 Kalends:
Amelia Benson Bielaski, Mollie Cullom Walker, and Lottie Magee visited in Baltimore at the time of the installation ceremonies.
July 1929 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker writes us from Birmingham, Ala.: "I have reached the place in life where my daughter is to be married. Harriet, who has just finished her second year at Smith College has decided to be married in the late summer or the early fall. She will live a thousand miles from me - at Haverford, Pa. My oldest son is in business in one of the largest bonding houses here. My second son is just about to enter the Junior class at Princeton and my third son is attending preparatory school at Pomfret, Conn.- he will later go to Princeton. "Mollie, Jr.", will go to the Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr in the Fall where she will spend three years before entering college.
For the last eighteen years I have done much work with children in Sunday school. I have also taught quite a bit of Child Psychology in normal schools. Outside of my home life I have devoted all my spare time to working with little children and the older I grow, the more soul-satisfying I find it.
July 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker was not well enough to return. She had been in a hospital, but is recovering rapidly and sent news of her busy family. Her husband is Judge of the Chancery Court, Birmingham, ALabama. Her oldest daughter, Harriet, is married; her second daughter, Mollie, is attending the Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsulvania. Mollie's oldest son is in business in Birmingham; the second son is a Junior at Princeton; and her third son attends a school in Prospect, Connecticut.
July 1931 Alumnae Quarterly:
Your letter was forwarded to me here in Haverford, where I am with my married daughter, Harriet, who is the proud young mother of two fine boys. The twins were born about two months ago and I came up to see them and to take them home with me for the summer. Harriet's husband has a boy's camp in Maine which he will go to as soon as the Episcopal Academy closes. My second son, William, graduates from Princeton, June 16th. After a summer in a Maine camp as counselor he will go to Law school in the fall. My youngest son, Shelby, graduates June 12th, from Pomfret School. He goes to Princeton in the fall. My baby, Mollie, is at the Baldwin School, in Bryn Mawr, and will enter Vassar the fall of 1932. Cullom, the oldest boy is still pegging away in the business world and I hope is slowly getting ahead these hard times.
My family is rapidly growing up much to my sorrow an dnow that I am the proud grandmother of twin boys you know just how old and ancient I ought to feel, but strange to say I do not feel so. On the contrary, those precious babies have thrown me back in memory to the happy youthful days of my life and I am much younger.
May 1934 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker's fine letter from Birmingham is just full of news about 1903 people:..."Martha C. Enochs, the Southeastern Sectional Director of the AAUW, has made two flying visits to Birmingham this winter and early spring. It has been most tantalizing to have had just a peep at her, but she has had an exceendingly busy spring schedule. Birmingham, March 24; Memphis, March 31; Knoxville, April 21, and Washington for the National Board Meeting of AAUW, April 26, 27, 28. But Martha's Birmingham friends hope for a real visit in the near future...My husband, Judge WIlliam Mudd Walker, is in the midst of another political campaign. May first will tell the tale. Every six years when the term is up I think maybe I won't be here for the next one, but here I am allive and kicking and working hard.
WIlliam Augustus Walker, our second son, graduated from the State Law School in January. Two weeks before he graduated he was picked by the Dean of the Law School to codify the State School Laws. He has two other graduates and a stenographer as assistants. The work is being supervised by the Dean and is a CVA-TVA project. It will bein book form when completed.
Our third son, Shelby Walker, is a Junior at Princeton. For two years he has worked his way. He is manager of the Cottage Club, works for the New York Times, and has several other small jobs to help with his expenses.
Mollie, Jr. is a Sophomore at Vassar and is also a self-help student. She is in the Cooperative House where the girls do all the work. She works in two tea rooms, in the library, swimming pool, and does various little jobs for the student body. The spirit of the self help girls is the envy of all the other students.
The Walkers have acquired a little old Maine farm house, 'Highclere,' in Nobleboro, Maine. The property adjoins the camp property of Donald D. Kennedy, our son-in-law. It is eight miles from Damariscotta, Maine, on Lake Damariscotta. The latch key hangs out to our Goucher friends. Come to see us. Two and a half miles from Number One Highway, sixty miles north of Portland, and twenty miles south of Rockland, It is a perfect place for peace and rest and we hope it will be a happy haven for our family and friends for many years to come. YOu can imagine how I love it with my grand twin boys as daily companions.
November 1936 Alumnae Quarterly:
Molly Cullom Walker's youngest daughter was married September 26 in Birmingham, Ala. Mrs. Walker has for nearly two years been an interviewer in the National Reemployment Office at Birmingham. Immediately after her daughter's wedding she is leaving the large home in which she has lived for twenty-seven years for a small one in the country.
November 1937 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker sends a fine budget of "southern" news which she says might have been more up to date had she been at home in Birmingham instead of at her Maine farm.
"Now that Judge Walker has retired,"she writes,"and all of our children are either married or live away we will spend about half of the year in Maine. Our youngest child graduated from Vassar June '36, married the following September and went to live in Greensboro, NC...Our eldest son is the only one living in Birmingham. He has two lovely children, a young daughter 17 months, Mollie Cullom Walker, and a baby son, Cullom, Jr., two months old.
"Billy, our second boy, lives in Detroit and is a member of a very fine old law firm. He has the promise of a brilliant future. Harriet comes next,-she has twin boys, Don and Dick, six years old and lives in Haverford, Pa., and Maine in the summer.
It is always my pleasure to see Mrs. Guth once during my visit in Maine. It was an extra thrill this summer to see Dr. Bacon when I called on Mrs. Guth. Dr. Bacon had spent most of the summer there. Her face, always sweet and patient, has grown even more so with the years that have treated her gently."
May 1939 Alumnae Quarterly
Mollie Cullom Walker sends us this brief message which tells so much, dated March 21st:
"JUdge Walker and I are on the eve of being on the wing again. We have rented our little country place for a year. After two or three weeks in Detroit with my sister and a visit in Philadelphia with our elder daughter, we will reach Maine for the planting season in both the vegetable and flower gardens. In the early fall we go to California to be with my mother for six months. So you see we are living like the birds- first to Maine then to California. I have four grandsons and only one granddaughter. The granddaughter is my namesake."
July 1939 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker, ever faithful, sent greetings with regrets because she is about to depart for Maine, where she spends her summers. She will visit her children in and about Princeton and Haverford in the fall, and then leave for a winter in California.
May 1944 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker, when she wrote in January was at High Acres Ranch just outside of Tucson, Ariz. She expected to stay several months, because the climate is beneficial in healing the arthritis in her right wrist and knee. Her home is still in Birmingham, Ala.
Winter 1949 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker is now at her winter home in Birmingham, Ala. My card to her was sent to her summer place in Maine. She writes (and I know she wille xcuse me if I did not decipher names correctly!): "For the past 15 years John G. Walker and I have spent six months in Maine on our Blueberry Farm. Needless to say we love it, not only the heavenly climate but the simple life. All five of our children are married, and we have not only ten children but eight grandchildren added to our family now. And of course they all come for their vacations with us at 'Highclere', Nobleboro, Maine.
Two of our children live in Alabama. Our eldest child and son, Cullom, lives in Birmingham with his family and is an investment banker. Marline, our baby, lives in a small town forty miles away. Shelby, our youngest son, lives in Haverford, Pa., with his wife and family. Billy, next to Cullom in age, our lawyer son, in Detroit with his wife of two years. Then Harriet our elder daughter lives in Maine, but spends several months each winter in Brazil near Sao Paulo with her husband, Donald Kermert, who has organized the first cannery in South America. It is a good neighbor gesture suggested by our State Department. This is the third year, and it has been most successful from every angle.
August 1950 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker sends a lovely picture of her Maine home in winter. She writes from there: "SInce Judge Walker has become almost a complete heart invalid, my life is most limited and the greater part of my time is spent catering to his physical comforts, and basking in the sweet joy of seeming necessary again.
Now that our five children are all married, we have greatly increased in numbers with our in-law daughters and sons and our precious eight granchildren. Our two fine eldest grandsons, Don, Jr., and Dick Kennedy have just finished their freshman year at Princeton and Trinity (Hartford, Conn.). Cullom, our eldest son, lives in Birmingham and is an investment banker. William A. Walker, our second son, and his wife Mary live in Detroit where Billy is a full partner in a wonderful law firm. Our youngest son, Shelby, who has lived in Philadelphia with is wife and two children- a son, William Mudd Walker (Judge's namesake of whom he is most proud) and a dainty little red-headed girl nearly three years old (post-war baby)- has been moved and promoted to Washington, D.C., where he has opened an office for A. O. Smith Corp. Mollie, our baby, who married the September after she graduated from Vassar in 1936, lives in Sylacauga, Alabama, 50 miles from Birmingham.
I have little interest to write about, now that I have had to resign all the Boards - Woman's Exchange, Boys' Industrial School, Sunday School Council, Garden Club, Literary Club and my 23 years of work in my own Church School."
Summer 1952 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker really gives us news - and in variety. She had a fine cruise this past spring. She writes as follows:
"Our cruise ship was most luxurious: 'Rio Tunuyan' owned and operated by State Argentine Line.
Our first stop was exotic Rio de Janeiro; then on to Santos (world's leading coffee port) with all its quaint, quiet charm and to nearby Sao Paulo, the Chicago of South America. But Montevideo was really my pet place, with its magnificent government buildings, exquisite homes and golden beaches rimmed by wonderful hotels, and last but not least of our stops, Buenos Aires, heart city of South American culture, one of the three most beautiful cities of the world.
On our return curise home, we stopped in Trinidad. It will always be one of the outstanding memories of my life.
I had the great pleasure of meeting and knowing one of Bess Debow Thompson's two daughters, Ann Jeffress, who took the cruise with me, and her splendid and most charming husband, Nelson Jeffress. Bess is not interested actively in music now; she says, 'My life is radio, T.V., telephone, family and friends.'
Speaking of Bess reminds me of that precious Helen Hendrix Mohr. Not long before Christmas she cracked her pelvic bone, so she has had some very difficult enforced leisure. This was the first Christmas since Lewis (her only child) and Irene married, so it brought added disappointments in her Christmas plans. But I am indeed happy to report that Helen is lots stronger and is learning to walk again...
Summer 1953 Alumnae Quarterly:
"As long as it is impossible for me to be present I want to send my regrets right away. For the last two summers I have tried to content myself in my precious Maine farm house, without my life companion. We had eighteen years there together and it is too lonely and sad. So I decided that I must sell it if I can find a desirable purchaser. I have to go up early in May to clean and put 'Highclere' in apple-pie order for prospective buyers. I am sure you understand. Give each returning classmate my dearest love- and blessings to you all of 1903."
Spring 1954 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker tells about her new home in FLorida and it must be wonderful to have such a wide view of the world. "It is located on a point of land projecting into Tampa Bay, looking directly across to the fifteen mile bridge being constructed from St. Petersbrg to Terra Ceia Island, which is not too far from me. It will shorten our car trip here not only by miles, but save hours of driving. In case any of my former classmates come this way, I shall be so happy to welcome you one and all i n my new home, where I expect to spend six months out of the year. The expansive view from my many windos is an ever varying one. The early morning sunrise beggars description, to be even more vivid in coloring than the afternoon sunsets, over the Gulf. The bird life is ever active, ever entertaining. Anna Maria Island, I might add, is a long narrow strip of land lying in the Gulf of Mexico, about nine miles due west of the city of Bradenton. We have a year round population of about thirty-six hundred, and enjoy neighborly, small town life." Mollie's address is Ciquina Lane, Anna Maria, Florida.
WHen Mollie celebrated her seventieth birthday, there was a great gathering of all the families to pay her tribute. I am sure she will not mind if I quote from the closing lines of a poem written in her honor for the day, by her sister-in-law:
God grant that peace and love abide
Forever at your fireside.
We trust that you will never roam,
But always say,'This is my home.'"
Fall 1954 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker's summer must have been a very happy one. She says, "One week ago yesterday, (Sept. 25) I reached home after many months. The last week in May I went to Springfield Mass., to my eldest son's wedding. Then I went to Chatham on Cape Cod for the month of June, with my sister, who has a lovely cottage there, and after that I visited my daughter in Maine. Came down to New York to sail on the S.S. United States for Europe, on the 24th of July, for a Scandinavian North Cape tour of six weeks. Now, at home again, I am swamped with mail to answer and also with trying to let my apartment to a desirable tenant, before taking off for my home in Florida, the last week in October.
I heard through a friend in Vicksburg that Martha Enochs was in very delicate health - practically an invalid - but living in that big house all alone, except for the 'help.'"
Fall 1956 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker spent the summer in Maine near her daughter and saw several Goucher alumnae. Gertrude Nickerson '00 was "almost across the road" from her and Bertha Miller '94 and Euphemia Miller Ream '07 were not far away. In early September, Mollie planned to visit her sister on Cape Cod and then go to see a cousin in Connecticut before flying out to Detroit to visit her second son and his wife. On October 13 she must be in PHiladelphia to attend the marriage of a first grandson. From there she will go to Birmingham to look in on her children and grandchildren living there before returning to Florida. Mollie asks any of her college friends who come that way to stop by to see her at "Skyclere," Anna Maria, Fla.
Summer 1957 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker writes from Maine: "You didn't know it, but I sold my home here when I bought my house in Florida, where I stay seven months of the year. But I still love Maine, not only for its delightfully cool summer climate, but because my daughter, Harriet W. Kennedy, runs a wonderful boy's camp. She has been most successful with it, and has been a very remarkable person. So I wend my way here every year to stay a while with Harriet, I either get a cottage or stay at an inn.
The best thing that has happened is that Mignon Comer Smith '01, is coming up here for the month of August. She has a mutual friend with her, and as neither of them has ever been to Maine before, we expect to have a wonderful time together, and I shall have such fun and joy showing them the sights of my beloved, simple Maine. Last summer I had a most charming cottage at Christmas Cove, which was big enough to take care of my children and grandchildren at different times. It was right on the wayet, and many yachts would berth here for the night on their way to Bar Harbor and other ports. Gertrude Nickerson '00 came to visit at the little inn where I had dinner almost every evening. She is coming to Christmas Cove again this summer so I have her visit to look forward to - also to seeing Bertha Miller '94 who goes to a lovely little inn which is close to Euphemia Miller Ream's
07 attractive summer home at Pemaquid Point."
Winter 1958 Alumnae Quarterly:
"After a lovely cool, comfortable and happy summer in Maine, here I am in my Florida home for seven months. Even though I do not own my home in Maine now, I love to go there as my daughter owns and operates a Boys' Camp there and I stayed in a most charming New England Inn in Damariscotta which is close to her camp.
For the past several summers, I have had the pleasure of seeing Bertha Miller, Gertrude Nickerson, and Euphemia Ream several times. We had some nice Goucher reunions, which of course, brought back very happy memories of our younger days.
The day we spent at Pemaquid Point in the charming home of Euphemia Ream, we loved getting her reactions to her 50th reunion and of course, she was full to overflowing with her tales of the wonderful new Goucher.
Mignon Comer Smith '01 spent the month of August with me and as it was her first visit to 'Beautiful Maine', I really had a grand time showing her all the 'highlights' and beauty spots of the coastal region.
Christmas cards from Goucher friends of long ago are so enjoyed and appreciated. I nearly wear mine out reading them. The one that stood out this year was from my old roommate of long ago in 'The Push,' Marie Nast Wherry. Her card was not only very beautiful but it was made from a painting done by her daughter Margaret."
Winter 1959 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker's granddaughter, Anne Reynolds Clark, is a freshman at Goucher this year. Mollie wrote about her cruise in the Pacific in a letter which came too late for the last Quarterly. It was a summer cruise which took her to Tahiti (lovely dancing, friendly people and everything different) to picturesque New Zealand, Australia, Fiji Islands, Samoa, and then Hawaii on the return trip, where Molly fell in love with Kauai, the most beautiful of the islands, -lush and green with pineapple and sugar cane fields, with a Grand Canyon second only to the Colorado in beauty and grandeur. "We saw it,"writes Mollie,"when the skies were clear, and then with the clouds rolling in. If you love scenery go to Kauai. It is all like some exotic dream of peace and beauty that will always be in my memory.
There are, of course, great differences between Hawaii and our mainland - Christian churches, Buddhist temples, heinas (ancient places of worship), a great diversity of food to please Portuguese, American, Polynesian, oriental and mixed tastes, and an island architecture which is an interesting outcome of all these different sources. But the finest thing about all this diversity of background and culture is the wonderful fact that these people live together pleasantly. That is what Hawaii means - not hulas, Waikiki, and grass skirts."
Summer 1959 Alumnae Quarterly:
When this letter reaches you in mid-August Molly Cullom Walker will probably be somewhere in one of the eastern Mediterranean countries on the last third of a trip around the world which started from San Francisco June 9. She expects to be in New York on September 8.
Winter 1960 Alumnae Quarterly:
Here's another world traveller home for a while, Mollie Cullom Walker, but writing more or less on the fly, as she was readying to go to the wedding of one of her grandsons in Birmingham. Mollie now boasts of having one great grandson and one great granddaughter. Lack of space forbids my including Mollie's lively story of her world tour, but how I wish I could give it to you, -her deep appreciation of Hong Kong's spectacular harbor, Sprinagar's beautiful misty valley (worth a world trip to see), and Jaipur, the city of rosy sandstone. She does give one's imagination something to feed on.
Summer 1961 Alumnae Quarterly:
Mollie Cullom Walker writes from Nobleboro, Me., where her oldest daughter owns and runs a boys' camp. Mollie says she has a cabin of her own which she tries to turn into a mansion. She is her usual happy self in the effort, and thinks she can help a bit too, instead of being cared for. Mollie says she will take no more long trips - a long, long one around Africa was her last - for, though she is well, her daughter thinks she should not attempt them. "I have my wonderful memories, though," says Mollie, "(and a bit of arthritis.)"
Spring 1964 Alumnae Quarterly:
Carrie Mae Probst gave me news of Mollie Cullom Walker, in a letter from Santa Maria Island where she was staying. Mollie had made a good recovery from a stroke suffered in '62 and her letters were surprisingly well written; she seemed to regain her old spirit and was certainly no complainer. A housekeeper-companion took care of her. Harriet, Mollie's daughter, told Carrie that another stroke had resulted in her going into a nursing home on the mainland where she seemed content, but living in the past and too confused about the prsent to make a visit advisable. We do agree with Carrie that it is pathetic that one so vivacious and active should be so stricken.
Winter 1966 Alumnae Quarterly:
IN MEMORIAM
It is hard to think of death coming to anyone who lived so joyously and worthily, bringing happiness to many persons, often just by her kindly presence.
Whatever Mollie undertook would be given her interested attentin - like her gardening. She, herself, planted 500 rose bushes in the garden of their first home after her marriage. Of ocurse, she belonged to the local garden club, was president of the Alabama State Club which she took into the national organization.
Her civic activities were many and varied. She helped to organize and manage the Birmingham Community Chest, was president of the PTA; headed the Red Cross Knitting Project for Alabama; was an officer of the War Fund Drive; and served on the boards of the YWCA, Women's Exchange, the Boys' Industrial School, and the Birmingham Sunday School Council. As superintendent of four departments of the Sunday School of Advent Episcopal Church she began to teach teachers as well as pupils, and this led to her speaking to Sunday School groups in many cities throughout the South. During this time she wrote countless articles for church publications.
Mollie and her husband, Judge Walker, became enamored with Maine, where one of their daughters lived. They divided their year between Nobleboro, Me., and Florida. Later, Mollie's home was at Santa Maria, where she could watch the sun come up over the bay and set over the Gulf of Mexico.
Mollie's genuine interest in people was the expression of a generous and joyous spirit. Her rich reward was in many spontaneous gestures of affection and trust, and in seeing some of the fruits of her labor. -Eda Briggs Frost '03
