Zenobia Trimble

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Her name was Zenobia Estelle Trimble, and before we go any further, you ought to know she was born May 14, 1881, and she lived a full life right up to February 13, 1950. The road that brought her to Wichita Falls started a long way off, in an Alabama foster home, and whatever that childhood looked like, she came out of it with something steady in her, something that would shape this whole community for decades to come.

She married C. C. Trimble, and they made their way to Wichita Falls together.

They had two children. Now, C. C.

Trimble became principal of Booker T. Washington School, and Zenobia didn't just stand to the side. She taught alongside him, and the two of them worked together to get science classes going at that school.

That's a thing worth sitting with. Not just teaching what was already there, but building something new. Then there's the Colored Day Nursery.

Thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years she worked there, caring for the children of working mothers, the kind of work that holds a community together stitch by stitch even when nobody's putting your name on a building. She earned respect across Wichita Falls for what she gave to the underprivileged, to schoolchildren, and to young women.

Started in an Alabama foster home, ended up being the kind of person a whole city remembered. That's Zenobia Trimble.

What the marker says

(May 14, 1881 -February 13, 1950) After growing up in an Alabama foster home, Zenobia Estelle married C. C. Trimble and came to Wichita Falls. They had two children. While her husband was principal of Booker T. Washington School, she taught and helped him begin science classes. She worked for 38 years at the "Colored Day Nursery" for children of working mothers. Mrs. Trimble earned community respect for her aid to the underprivileged, to schoolchildren, and to young women. (Recorded - 1979.)