Malinda Jenkins was a down to earth woman who made no pretense of being a lady. In her time she managed boarding houses and ran several successful businesses. Economic and sexual conduct that was inappropriate for women at that time posed no problem for her. She was married three times. The last time for 43 years to a gambler. She constantly left her husbands behind while she pursued opportunities all over the west. From the turn of events Malinda seems to have been even more of a gambler than her husband.

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When she was eighty three, having become a millionaire by breeding race horses, she said. Do you know what I’d do if I went broke? I’d go into business tomorrow, Yes sir, and I’d make good like I always done. I didn’t want no more children. I had my home, my work and everything a woman raised like me could wish for. Two children was enough. When Malinda was living with her sister who was a midwife, she was always poking around in her medical books. She learned how to take care of herself but one night they were spending the night away from home and she wasn’t prepared.

Her husband Willie insisted on his marital rights and she became pregnant. She felt a terrible grudge against Willie and wanted to run away and hide. Of course she didn’t and that second child became a tramp and wanderer. Malinda says, It ain’t to be wondered at. That boy has lived everything I wished for and wanted for myself while I was carrying him.

Willie was a shiftless man and Malinda knew she would have to sink or swim according to her own efforts. She was ill as she fixed the children the best meal she could. She knew it would be the last. She put them to bed that night and kissed them goodbye. She told them she would come back to get them. Soon after Malinda left, Willie parceled the children out to relatives.

Malinda went to Fort Worth to the boarding house of a Mrs. Swenson and worked to pay for her keep. She had written to her sister Mary to send for her but no word came from Mary. Malinda had to face up to being on her own and she found it was the best thing that could have happened. At last she heard from her sister and went out to her but in the meantime she had found she could make it on her own. At Mary’s home the farms were prosperous and Malinda was so encouraged by what she saw that she sent for Willie to bring the children and come to her. He never came and by chance she learned Willie had divorced her. She had men friends and several asked her to marry them but Malinda only wanted her children.

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Mary was also adventurous. She and Malinda drove a team to El Paso where Mary leased a boardinghouse. She didn’t like to cook so Malinda took on the job of cooking. Mary felt she was needed at home and let the place go but Malinda stayed on. She had seven dollars to her name but rented half a boarding house offering her sewing machine as a down payment. She bought a stove and cooking supplies on credit and still had the seven dollars. She needed a table and benches for the dining room and got them free by buying one piece, twenty foot long and one foot wide. When Malinda bought her meat and vegetables she had two dollars left. She fed six men the first day and they paid her in advance for the next week. The next day she had twenty to feed and had to hire help.

Then worse came to worse. Malinda took typhoid fever and laid in bed for 43 days. When she recovered she decided to take up dressmaking and again had the busiest dressmaking business in town. She soon had three sales lady’s, then in the glory of her success she took typhoid again. This time when she recovered her doctor introduced her to a rich man. He asked her to marry him and promised he would take her to get her children. She accepted, he kept his promise, and Malinda continued her grand adventures.

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