Local family has ties to Colorado City history

For Colorado City resident Bessie Wright, just being here is a miracle in itself. Her parents moved to Colorado City at very young ages from Red River County, though the two had never met. It took the move and a few years of growing up before the two people would fall in love and marry. Her father, Albert Walthall, came here from Clarksville, at the age of 13 to live with an uncle. While her mother, Ceola Butler made the move with her parents at the age of two. Bessie described her father as a laborer, who spent time working for Fuller Foods, Haliburton (before the company moved to Oklahoma), the oil mill in Colorado City and even at Truck Town. “He would do anything,” Wright said of her father. “Anything which was honest, anyway.” Meanwhile, Wright’s mother opened the first public laundromat in Colorado City which allowed blacks to use the machines. “Mom worked out a deal with Ms. Snowden, who owned a laundry mat,” Wright said. “She bought six Maytag wringer style washers and made payments every week on them.” Wright said her father built a small build“We had a very long clothes line,” she said. “The people would hang their clothes out and let them dry the old fashioned way.” Though leaving no impression of a family of great wealth, Wright talked of a childhood where their family always had people living with them, those down on their luck, just starting out or needing a fresh start. “There was always more than just our immediate family there at the table,” Wright said looking back. “It was never uncommon to see 10-12 kids at dinner time.” Bessie Wright graduated from Wallace High School in 1961, before attending the only nursing school Colorado City had. She was the only one to graduate from the school. She moved to Houston in 1973, but found her way home in the mid-1980’s, realizing her kids were getting lost in a dangerous world in Houston. The last two of her four children graduated from Colorado High School. I guess one thing I remember most was going to nursing school during the same era as the civil rights movement. My dad really helped me through that time, with his thoughtful way of looking at everything. More than any, she remembered him telling her, “Remember this, when someone is looking down on you, they still have to look you in the eye.” Bessie Wright has pictures and letters which trace her family back to the time when they were slaves, but the history did not stop there. Her grandfather, George Martin, was a World War I veteran and is buried in the Washington State Military Cemetery. Her great grandfather, Albert Prince, was the first in the family who moved to Texas. It was in the 1890’s with his second wife, Viola Grey. The family’s history is one of strength, one of determination, but now, it is one of many which make up the history of Colorado City.