Alice B. Cockrell, Clarke School Student

The “Alice Cockrill” who the Fairfax Herald refers to as a student at the Clarke School in 1913 was probably Alice B. Cockrell, judging from early 20th century census records. Alice B. Cockrell was born in 1898 as the first child to Jeremiah “Jeff” Cockrell and Florence R. Cockrell, according to information census and Social Security information. Her father was a carpenter. Alice’s mother, Florence, was from the Pearson family, which had a longstanding presence in the Vienna area and was descended from a Pearson who had received a land grant from Lord Fairfax in the Colonial Era.

Alice and her mother don’t seem to appear in the 1900 census, whereas Alice’s father is recorded at his parents’ residence. I assume the census-taker missed Alice and her mother for some reason.  Regardless, in 1910, 11-year-old Alice was living with her parents and three siblings at a house on the west side of Beulah Road at the Vienna town line, according to census and property records.  The house, built by her father and maternal grandfather, stands to this day at the corner of Sideling Court and Beulah Road (see Figure 1).  

In May 1913, when Alice was 14 and just weeks after Alice’s appearance in the Fairfax Herald, her mother died at 36 in connection with the birth of her fifth child. Alice’s education apparently ended at that point; the 1940 census lists her highest grade attended as the 7th grade. As the oldest child in the household, one can imagine that the death of her mother could have put a great responsibility on Alice for helping to run the household.  Perhaps the presence of extended family living nearby helped.  Regardless, in 1916, Alice, 17, married Ralph Thomas Poore, 22, whose job was to forge steel at the Washington Steel and Ordnance Company.  When Ralph declared Alice as a dependent on his WWI draft registration the following year, he wrote, “Delicate – wife,” a characterization that might relate to emotional scars in Alice from her mother’s death or to Alice’s relative youth.  As of 1920, the couple was living with their infant daughter in the household of Alice’s brother in Southeast DC, which would have put them near Ralph’s job at the ordnance factory.  The Washington Steel and Ordnance Company was on the grounds of today’s Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.  

In the mid-1920s, Alice and Ralph were involved in several real estate transactions near the  southwest corner of the Tysons crossroads.  This area, south of Chain Bridge Road and between the Leesburg Pike and Old Courthouse Road, is commercial now but at that time was the Freedom Hill Farm subdivision of residential lots, according to Connie and Mayo Stuntz in their “This Was Tysons Corner.” Alice’s and Ralph’s period of ownership was so short that I suspect they never lived on the lots.  In 1930, the National Bank of Fairfax sued Alice and Ralph in relation to a judgment against them, with the bank seeking a one-acre property that Alice and her relatives owned directly across Beulah Road from her childhood home, according to the Washington Evening Star, Fairfax Herald, and Fairfax County property records.

Alice’s marriage to Ralph foundered in the 1930s.  As of the 1930 census, she was the head of household in a rental in Southwest DC, Her three children and her brother lived with her.  Alice was working as a bookkeeper in the roofing industry. The residence lacked a radio, suggestive of modest financial circumstances for 1930. In 1933, Alice and Ralph divorced. Alice was the plaintiff and Ralph did not contest the action. At the time Alice was living in Clarendon and Ralph in DC; they had had three children. Two years later, she was living on Trinidad Avenue in Northeast, according to census information. In 1939, Alice sued her ex-husband for alimony, according to the Washington Post. 

The growth of the federal government in the 1930s may have opened up some opportunities for Alice. As of 1940, she was working 40 hours per week as a file clerk for the government, according to the census.  She continued to rent the house on Trinidad Street and two of her children were residing with her. The census inaccurately records her as widowed. In contrast, the 1950 census lists her accurately as divorced. In 1950, she headed a household that included her daughter and two grandchildren and was located in Northeast near New Hampshire Avenue and the Maryland line.  Alice had advanced to being an auditor in the federal government’s General Accounting Office, judging from census information.

Alice Bertha Poore nee Cockrell died in 1996 in Charles County, Maryland, according to Social Security records.  She was 97 years old.  She was survived by nine grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild, according to her obituary.  

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