By Mary Melcher, Ph.D.

Volunteers have always been the backbone of the Sharlot Hall Museum.  From the time that the museum was founded in 1928 to the present, volunteers have been needed to keep the Museum alive.

Evelyn Lenora (Mackin) Grayner Del Marsh Zuchero was born November 19, 1902, in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, the daughter of Peter and Alvina (Bennett) Mackin. "We Mackin children," she recalled, "used to walk the two miles to and from school each day, often times through snow and cold."

Florence “Pat” Hearne (Brookhart) Yount was born on March 5, 1909, in Washington, Iowa, the daughter of Jennie (Hearne) and Smith Wildman Brookhart, who served in the U.S. Senate. Interested from an early age in science, Pat received the support of her family when she decided to pursue a medical career. She attended the George Washington University Medical School in Washington, D.C., where she was one of five women in a class of eighty-eight.

May Elenor (Imus) Davis Brown Young, daughter of Edwin and Rose (Hunt) Imus, was born on January 7, 1878, on the Goodwin Homestead at the fork of Walnut and Apache creeks, about fifty miles northwest of Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. Edwin and Rose were one of the first ranching families to settle in Mohave County.  They homesteaded the site of old Camp Willow.

Lucille (Singletary) Denson Yopp was born December 7, 1877, in Texas. In 1886, her father, Daniel C. Singletary, a farmer, founded the Monaville Post Office in his store on Harris Creek in central Waller County, Texas. He named the community Monaville in honor of his daughter. In 1900, Lucille was working in her father’s grocery. She had a sister, Mona, and a brother, Julian.

Frances “Frankie” Belle (Middleton) Wood, daughter of Cora Ellsworth (Chishom) and Charles M. Middleton, was born on August 11, 1879, at Hallettsville, Lavaca Vegas County, Texas. She arrived in Geronimo, Graham County, Arizona, on August 24, 1896.

Elizabeth Malvina (Russell) Hopper Wine was born on January 25, 1863, in Pineville, Missouri to Alvina Caroline (Davenport) and Carlyle Ross Russell. Elizabeth married Robert Monroe Hopper in McDonald County, Missouri, on August 24, 1877.

Esta (Redden) Winchester was born in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, on June 15, 1900, the daughter of Esta Maria (Miller) and Monroe Redden.  She was born in the old Governor’s Mansion because her relative was a tenant there at the time. Her mother died eight days after her birth. She and her sister, Rachel, were raised by her grandmother, Rachel (Wiebrecht) Miller on the Miller Ranch in Skull Valley. Esta is the grandniece of Sam Miller, for whom Miller Valley is named.

May “Lilly” (Larremore) Wilson was born on May 10, 1898, in Prescott, the youngest child of nine children of Sarah Jane (Milne) and Lebbeous Thaddeus Larremore of Yeager Canyon, Yavapai County, Arizona. In later years, she went by the name of May. She attended school in McCabe and Humboldt.

Theora “Thee” Margaret Marie (Shields) Darnell Widener was born November 25, 1909, in Solomonville, Arizona, to Florence Belle (Riggs) and Frank Ward Shields, both Arizona natives. She first lived on the UX Ranch (originally the McKinney Ranch), in Cochise County near Bowie, Arizona. The ranch house was one of the oldest in Arizona.