Bessie Walker Devault

Bessie Walker and her twin sister, Jessie, were born on 15 March 1884 in Hopkins County, Kentucky, the children of John Lewis Walker and Nancy E. Price. Nancy died of childbirth complications a few days after the twins’ birth. With the help of his mother, John took care of the children until he died three years later.¹Richard Walker to Linda McCauley, e-mail, 18 Nov 2011; privately held by McCauley; Richard’s grandfather Eldred Glover Walker was Bessie’s brother, information Richard shared from family stories. The twins were adopted by Goodloe half-sisters, Janie and Virginia. Janie and her third husband, Thomas K. Devault, adopted Bessie. Virginia and her husband, William Henry Moore, adopted Jessie.²1900 U.S. census, Hopkins Co., KY, population schedule, Earlington, enumeration district (ED) 64, sheet 36A, dwelling 464, family 508, Thomas Devault; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7602 : accessed 15 Feb 2010); from NARA microfilm T623, roll 528; Bessie Walker listed as adopted daughter, age 16, born Mar 1884. 1900 U.S. census, Hopkins Co., KY, population schedule, Earlington, enumeration district (ED) 63, sheet 10B, dwelling 201, family 207, William H. Moore; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7602 : accessed 15 Nov 2021); from NARA microfilm T623, roll 528; Jessie Moore listed as daughter, “ad” above that marked out, age 16, born Mar 1884.

Bessie was listed with the last name Devault in Janie’s obituary in 1905 but appears to have gone by Walker most of the time. Sometime between 1905 and 1910, Bessie suffered brain damage from either an illness or accident and spent the rest of her life institutionalized.³Richard Walker to Linda McCauley, e-mail, 18 Nov 2011. In 1920, 1930, and 1940 censuses, Bessie was a patient at Western State Hospital in Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky.⁴1920 U.S. census, Christian Co., KY, population schedule, Palmyra Precinct, enumeration district (ED) 6, sheet 11B, Western State Hospital, Bessie Walker; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061 : accessed 13 Nov 2021); from NARA microfilm T625, roll 565. 1930 U.S. census, Christian Co., KY, population schedule, District #3, enumeration district (ED) 11, sheet 16A, Western State Hospital, Bessie Walker; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224 : accessed 13 Nov 2021); from NARA microfilm T626. 1940 U.S. census, Christian Co., KY, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 24-15, sheet 10A, Western State Hospital, Bessie Walker; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442 : accessed 13 Nov 2021); from NARA microfilm 627, roll 1294. The hospital was a psychiatric facility operated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

On 4 September 1959, Bessie died of a coronary occlusion at Kentucky State Hospital in Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky. Her body was donated to the University of Louisville Medical School in Louisville, Kentucky.⁵“Kentucky, U.S., Death Records, 1852–1965,” digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1222 : accessed 13 Nov 2021), death certificate no. 18375 (1593), Bessie Walker, Boyle Co.; from microfilm 7016130–7041803, KY Dept. for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort.