Bertha Josephine “Pete” (Rosenblatt) Scholey Boone was born April 30, 1908, in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. She was the third of six children born to Paul Gerhardt and Dora Cordelia (Leach) Rosenblatt.
Paul, who was hoping for a son after Cordelia or “Delia” presented him with two daughters, named his third child Bertha Josephine in honor of his youngest sister. Soon, however, the namesake baby was nicknamed “Pete,” as was her father. She was “Pete” for the rest of her life.
She attended Lincoln School, and then she attended Washington School on the opposite side of town. Everyone walked in those days, and she often reminded her children that not only did the sisters walk to and from school; they even came home for lunch.
Pete went to Prescott High School where she was very active, participating in Glee Club and varsity basketball. The athletic teams traveled by train to interscholastic meets-- a grand adventure. Pete’s older sisters, Pauline and Dora, played in a band, and Pete was a dancer. This petite, beautiful, vivacious girl attracted a host of suitors, among them young Barry Goldwater, who eventually proposed matrimony. Pete said she turned him down because he seemed to be a playboy who wouldn’t amount to much.
Pete graduated from high school in 1927 and attended the University of Arizona, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She left college to marry Clair Kenneth Scholey on July 13, 1930, at the First Congregational Church. The Prescott Evening Courier published a description of her gown and bouquet: “a wedding gown of ivory satin, with a veil of point d'esprit fastened with a coronet of seed pearls, and … bouquet of lilies of the valley and bride’s roses.” After a short honeymoon, the couple returned to Prescott to live at 351 S. Mount Vernon Street.
Clair, ever adventurous, purchased an airplane, and he and Pete barnstormed around the Southwest giving rides for a penny a pound. She said it was not a very good way to make a living, but it was great fun. Along the way, the Scholeys had two daughters, Claire Kay and Cordelia “Dee,” both born in Prescott.
Early in World War II, Pete and Clair moved to Bellflower, California, where they worked at Douglas Aircraft making airplanes needed for the war. They worked different shifts, so one of them was always home with the girls. After the war, the family moved back to Prescott, where Clair opened a boat and cabinet-building business.
In April 1948, Clair died. Pete was left with two daughters and no means to support them. There were few jobs for women, but Pete found work with an insurance agency, as an underwriter. She quickly became proficient and followed that career for the rest of her working life.
She married Tom Boone in Prescott. They moved to Gold Hill, Oregon and purchased a ranch. Tom tended to the ranch, and Pete worked as an insurance underwriter in Medford, Oregon.
In the late 1970s, Pete left Oregon and moved to Canyon Lake, California, to be near her daughter, Dee Zasio. In 1980 Pete moved back to Prescott and became a member of the Prescott Corral of Westerners and the Republican Women’s Club. She resided in the old Rosenblatt home at 110 Willow Street until her death October 5, 1983. Her ashes were inurned between her mother and father in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Cemetery in Prescott.
She was the first of the five Rosenblatt sisters to die. Her grandmother, Dora Leach Russell Bubar; mother, Dora Cordelia Rosenblatt Walker; sisters, Dora Virginia Rosenblatt Heap, Louise Caroline Rosenblatt Lynch and Pauline Gerhardt Rosenblatt Tovrea are also commemorated in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.
Donors: Dee Zasio, daughter, and Paul G. Rosenblatt, brother, September 2005
Photo Located: Prescott High School Hassayamper Yearbook, 1926, Pg. 20
Updated: 4/2/2015; D. Sue Kissel
