Dr. Mabel Amanda Genung was born in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, on June 16, 1875, to Charles Baldwin and Ida Elizabeth Hester (Smith) Genung, pioneers of Peeples Valley, who homesteaded their land. Mabel attended school in Prescott, residing with Captain and Mrs. Bucky O’Neill during her high school days. Mabel was teaching school in Santa Maria, California, during the winter of 1898 but returned to Peeples Valley to nurse her sister, Louise, who was seriously ill with pneumonia. Probably while representing the Woodmen of the World, Mabel traveled throughout North America. The May 12, 1901 edition of the Arizona Republican carried an article: “ARIZONA ALL RIGHT –Miss Mabel Genung, who left Phoenix about a year-and-a-half ago, returned to Phoenix on Wednesday from Congress, where she is now living, and went home last night after a pleasant stay in the city. Since her former visit here she has traveled in Mexico and throughout the east and Canada, but says Arizona is the best place she has found yet, all things considered, for a permanent residence.” In 1910, Mabel boarded with the George McCrea family in Los Angeles, California, while studying to be a physician. The June 12, 1911 Arizona Republican noted “GRADUATES IN MEDICINE – The new catalogue of the University of Southern California announces the graduation of Miss Mabel A. Genung, from the college of physicians and surgeons. Miss Genung is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Genung and was born and raised in Arizona. Her many friends will be pleased to know of her successful entry into professional life.” Dr. Mabel Genung was one of the first female physicians in Arizona. Dr. Genung practiced medicine in California and Utah. The Bakersfield Morning Echo April 29, 1914, carried an article mentioning that Dr. Mabel Genung was leaving the employ of the Sonoma State Home for the feeble minded. She was listed in the 1921 American Medical Directory as a member of the Medical Society of the State of California, which also stated that she had moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. By April 1930, she was practicing in San Francisco. However, when her brother George died in June 1945, Mabel was living back in Peeples Valley. Her newspaper obituary published in the Prescott Evening Courier August 29, 1957, noted, “She practiced medicine for twenty-five years in San Francisco and moved to Peeples Valley and then to Phoenix. While a young woman, she represented the Woodmen of the World in a tour though the eastern portion of the United States.” Mabel died August 27, 1957, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona. Donor: Elaine Christensen, 2014 Photo Located: Genung Family Collection - MS-5, Box 3 Updated: 4/18/15; D. Sue Kissel
