Mollie Evelyn Moore Godbold -- Playwright, Historian and Feature Writer

 

Mollie Moore Godbold

Mollie Evelyn Moore was born on November 4, 1877 in Proctor, Texas. She was the fifth of ten children born to Thomas Oscar Moore and Sarah Adelie Thomas Moore.  Thomas Oscar was a noted city leader of Comanche, Texas and was a native of  Talladega, Alabama.  Sarah was a native of Trigg County, Kentucky and a daughter of Stanley Thomas.  

Mollie’s siblings were Thomas Moore, born in 1867 and died at birth; Ida Kate Moore, born in 1869 and married Oliver Maxwell Simmons; Robert Hartwell Moore, born in 1872 and married Fannie Theresa Holmsley; Charles Maxon Moore, born in 1875 and married Ethel Hill; Henry Edward Moore, born in 1881; Susan Martin Moore, born in 1884 and married Claude William Meadows; Percy Adelle Moore, born in 1888 and married Walter Jack Cunningham; Stanley Thomas Moore, born in 1891 and married Louise Black; and Clara Edith Moore, born in 1893 and married James Dallas “J.D.” Slack.

Mollie grew up with her large family in Comanche, Texas.  She received her education in the public schools of Comanche as well as being tutored at home.

On June 15, 1897, Mollie married Sanctus Wilbur Godbold in Comanche. Sanctus was born in 1872 in Marshall, Texas, the son of  Nathan Wilbur Godbold and Mary Elizabeth Powell Godbold. Nathan worked as a bookkeeper and was a native of Alabama. Mary Elizabeth was a native of Texas.

Mollie and Sanctus lived in Comanche during the early years of their marriage and Sanctus worked as a salesman.  They later moved to Dallas and where Sanctus was employed by the Adams-Leonard Bank and later with the Padgitt Company.  In 1915 they moved from Dallas to Long Beach, California where Sanctus was the proprietor of the Park View Hotel.  He worked at the hotel for two- and one-half years until his death in 1918.

After Sanctus’ death, Mollie moved backed to Comanche and later moved to Dallas with her children. In 1909 while in Comanche, Mollie wrote a three-act play which was written primarily to please a friend that was produced locally.  To her surprise the play became well known and was produced at several locations throughout Texas. In 1920 a manager in Atlanta bought the rights to her play called “The Microbe of Love” and the play was soon being produced nationwide in amateur theaters. She wrote a second play called “Polly Ticks” about women suffrage which also became popular across the country. Mollie went on to write numerous other plays whose royalties helped her to support her young family in Dallas as she was the family breadwinner after her husband’s death.  Mollie also wrote the music and lyrics for several songs and published several articles for the Dallas newspapers. She was eventually considered one of Texas’ most successful playwrights as well as being known as a noted historian and feature writer.

Mollie also wrote several poems and three novels.  The novels were titled Raw Edges, Gun Shy and Quality Folks.  One of her last writing efforts was a two-part article on her home town of Comanche and the gunman John Wesley Hardin which appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1963.

Mollie and Sanctus were the parents of three children, Sanctus Wilbur Godbold, Jr., born in 1899 and married Pauline Minnie Demontel; Mary Ida Godbold, born in 1904 and married Christopher Octavious Gill; and Nat Hartwell Godbold, born in 1908 and married Evelyn Claudia Padgett.

Sanctus died on April 22, 1918 at the age of 46 in Long Beach, California of valvular heart disease.  He was buried in the Sunnyside Cemetery in Long Beach. Mollie died on June 4, 1964 at the age of 86 in Dallas, Texas of a cerebral hemorrhage.  She was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Comanche.

 Mollie tombstone

 

Sanctus tombstone

LINEAGE: (Mollie Evelyn Moore was the daughter of Thomas Oscar and Sarah Adelie Thomas Moore. Sarah was the third child of Stanley and Sarah Thompson Rothrock Thomas.  Stanley was the seventh child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)