Census Sunday: Theresa Walsh Crews

My paternal grandmother Julia Walsh Slade
and Tate Walsh
It was captioned "Just us -- Julia and Tate"

Theresa “Tate” Walsh Crews (later Murray) was the baby of the family born to Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh and John Fleming Walsh in March 1913.  I never met her, but I would have liked to have that chance.  As far as I know, she stayed away after having a child out of wedlock although her sisters heard from her from time to time.  She married twice, but I don’t think she had anymore children.

I was glad to find her in the 1940 census in Washington DC.  Ancestry indexed her as Theresa M. CrewE, but FamilySearch got it right indexing her as Theresa M. CrewS. 

Click to enlarge

Tate was 26, married to James G. “Jimmy” Crews (28) of North Carolina.  She had completed three years of high school and Jimmy, two.  It appears they had not been married very long as Tate was still in Portsmouth in 1935 while Jimmy was in Quantico, Virginia.  Could he have been a marine?

Tate and Jimmy lived in the house on the left.
from Google Maps

In 1940 they were renting at 206 17^th St NE in Washington DC for $30 a month.  Harry and Irene Ernest had the same address and were listed as owners of the property.  Several of the neighboring addresses had two families listed as well.  Judging by the roofline of surrounding row houses, they might have had attic apartments, but I can’t say conclusively. 

Jimmy was a car operator for public utilities earning $1862 for fifty-one weeks of work in 1939.  That equates to about $43,160 today.  Tate was a beautician in a local beauty parlor.  She must have been new at the job as she had not worked or earned an income at all in 1939.  Another beautician lived just two doors away.  I wonder if they worked together.

I also wonder if Tate is the one who dyed her sister Catherine Walsh Barany’s hair red.  They lived close to one another.

Cat lived at "A" and Tate at "B"
from Google Maps

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