by Renee Brown
Across the country and probably across the world, women with vision have been the unsung heroes in developing communities. In Palm Springs, the success of the city is greatly credited to a few women who had the tenacity and the resourcefulness to create a world class resort. They built and nurtured the growth of a little village in the middle of a desert oasis that would become the world-class resort known as Palm Springs.
One of the women who built this town was Palm Springs pioneer, Zaddie Bunker. Born Zaddie Dawson, she was teaching school in Missouri when she met and married Ed Bunker. After the family, including their daughter Frances, made the decision to move to California, they converted their two-cylinder Austin into a pickup truck by removing the back seat. By doing this they could gather their belongings and head west.
The Bunkers rented 1000 acres in San Jacinto and planted potatoes. When it came time to harvest the potatoes, it took a large crew of men and sixteen teams of horses just to get them out of the ground. The price for potatoes that year was only 25 cents per hundred pounds and at that price they would not even make enough money to pay the expenses for the harvest. They decided to rent a warehouse in San Jacinto and store the potatoes hoping to get a better price in the spring. As luck would have it, there was a huge freeze that winter, the coldest that area had ever seen, and all the potatoes were ruined.
Soon after they learned that Riverside County had just passed bonds to pave the highway from Banning to Indio. They knew that there was an automobile garage in Banning and one in Indio, so they decided that Palm Springs would be a good location to open a repair garage. After they took an automobile repair correspondence course, they moved to Palm Springs. One of Zaddie's sisters lent them some money and in 1914 they leased land, built a tent- house with hardwood floors and wood walls, all covered with a canvas roof. They also built a corrugated metal garage and opened Bunker's Garage. At that time, there were only three cars in Palm Springs. Until there was a sufficient demand for their auto repair business, Ed worked for 25 cents an hour building fences, digging ditches and anything else there was to do for builder Alvah Hicks. The Desert Inn's owner, Nellie Coffman, another Palm Springs pioneer, paid Zaddie 25 cents an hour to sew for her.
Zaddie found another way to supplement the family income. She became the first woman in California to obtain her chauffeur's license. She used her makeshift pickup truck and transported tourists and goods that needed to be hauled into town from the train station. When the opportunity presented itself, the Bunkers purchased one parcel of land after another on Main Street (present-day Palm Canyon Drive).
In the early 1920s, they leased land to one of the Hollywood studios for a Western that was being filmed. The studio built a set that included little houses with piped in water next to Bunker's Garage. After the filming was finished the Bunkers used the buildings as rentals. Years later they opened the village's first Studebaker dealership in one of the buildings. Zaddie's sister, Lillie Goff, and her family arrived in Pasadena, California in 1921. Zaddie talked her sister into coming to Palm Springs to help her cook for the movie crews filming there. The two Dawson sisters ironed, sewed, cleaned, and did just anything that came along to earn a living.
In 1929, the Bunker's daughter, Frances, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, returned from college and opened an office in one of her parents' buildings downtown. The next year she met and married Earle Strebe, a movie projectionist who worked at The Desert Inn and the Oasis Hotel. Because of their busy schedules, they could not see much of each other, so Frances gave up her practice.
After their daughter married, Zaddie and Ed Bunker divorced. Together they had purchased a sizable amount of real estate both in Palm Springs and in the mountains near Idllywild. Zaddie was awarded all the real estate in Palm Springs and a large portion of the land in the mountains. Years later when she talked about her divorce, she would laugh and say that Ed had traded her in for a new model, but she was the one who ended up with the best part of the trade because she was the one who became a millionaire.
With the help of her son-in-law, Earle Strebe, Zaddie Bunker built a movie theatre on the corner of Andreas Road and Palm Canyon Drive where the original garage had been located. Strebe ran the theater and was very successful. Zaddie and Earle Strebe continued to invest in real estate, both buying and leasing their properties all over town. Zaddie Bunker became one of wealthiest women in the city.
Zaddie never remarried. She was well known for having an adventurous spirit. She loved to ride her horse up into the canyons all the way up to Idllywild. She traveled extensively and, according to her daughter, everywhere she went she promoted the city of Palm Springs. Zaddie was involved in many community events and organizations.
Zaddie knew that she wanted to fly when she saw her first airplane, but at that time, her husband discouraged her. She held on to her dream and finally got her pilot's license when she was 65 years old. On the fuselage of her private plane was written "Zaddie's Rocking Chair."
Zaddie was a "can-do" woman who became famous as the "Great-Grandmother Pilot." She kept following her dreams, and at the age of 71, she piloted an F-100 Super Sabre jet and became one of the first women to break the sound barrier. At age 73, she passed the strenuous physical for Air Force jet pilots and the Air Force made her an honorary colonel. Three years later, she won a cross-country airplane race, beating five male pilots.
Zaddie applied for the Apollo moon flight while in her early 80s and, although she did not get that bid, she did spend some time in the space capsule simulator.
On February 23, 1959, under the pretense of attending an aeronautical aviation meeting, Zaddie flew into the Burbank Airport and was met by a television camera crew and a television show host named Ralph Edwards. As the plane taxied up to a prearranged spot, Edwards walked up to Zaddie as she disembarked and said, "Zaddie Bunker, this is your life." Literally millions of people from coast to coast turned on their television sets to watch the life story of Palm Springs pioneer, entrepreneur, and Flying Great-Grandmother, Zaddie Bunker. She died in 1969, one-week shy of her 82nd birthday.
The Periscope, a series available on Amazon:
The Periscope includes a series of engaging publications that detail the rich history of the Coachella Valley. From life as a pioneer, the growth of the date industry, all the way to the Salton Sea saga, and much more, the stories bring to life the desert region of Southern California. Written under the umbrella of the Coachella Valley Historical Society (dba Coachella Valley History Museum), books in the series tell the stories of the innovators who helped to make the vibrant region what it is today.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Priscilla Porter is the Co-Director of the Porter History-Social Science Resource Center at the Palm Desert Campus of California State University San Bernardino and a volunteer at the Coachella Valley History Museum. A former elementary school teacher, she is the author of many popular curriculum guides for teachers.
Professional gratitude is extended to the contributing authors: Patricia Korzec, Renee Brown, Diana P. Kitagawa, Rod Hendry, Julia Sizek, and Patricia Laflin. Credit is extended to Eduardo Contreras for the cover design.
This is the first book in The Periscope series from the Coachella Valley Historical Society (dba Coachella Valley History Museum). Additional books in the series will be available SOON. To hear about the latest books, sign up for the exclusive New Release Mailing List by sending an email to prisporter@aol.com. You’ll be glad you did!
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