In the early part of the 20th century, Palm Springs attracted entrepreneurs who recognized the desert village’s potential for greatness. Ed and Zaddie Bunker arrived in Palm Springs in 1913 with their young daughter. They drove from their home in Missouri to California, converting their two-cylinder Austin into a pickup truck by removing the back seat. The family first settled in San Jacinto, rented 1,000 acres, and planted potatoes. When they harvested their crop, they stored it in a warehouse. A huge freeze that winter, the coldest that area had ever seen, ruined the potatoes, and they lost the money they invested.
They learned that a highway was in the planning stages that would pave the road between Banning and Indio. They borrowed money from Zaddie’s sister and drove down the narrow, rugged road from Banning to Palm Springs. When they arrived, they lived in tent houses for almost two years. They decided that since there were car repair garages in Banning and Indio, Palm Springs would be the perfect spot to open another. The rough desert roads were hard on cars. Ed and Zaddie both took an automobile repair correspondence course, purchased a parcel of land, and constructed a corrugated metal building that became Bunker’s Garage.
Until there was a sufficient auto repair business, Ed worked for builder Alvah Hicks, building fences, digging ditches, and doing anything else there was to do for 25 cents per hour. Zaddie found another way to supplement the family income. She became the first woman in California to get her chauffeur’s license. She operated the stage line that brought mail, passengers, and freight from the Whitewater Station to Palm Springs. They purchased the line from George Roberson (Nellie Coffman’s son) when he went to serve in World War I.
When the opportunity presented itself, the Bunkers purchased one parcel of land after another on Main Street (North Palm Canyon). In the early 1920s, they leased this land to a Hollywood studio to film a Western movie. Zaddie insisted that when they built the sets, they included plumbing. When the filming was finished, and the film company left, she had cement sidewalks installed and then rented out those buildings for commercial use.
In 1929, the Bunkers’ daughter, Frances, an osteopathic physician and surgeon, returned from college and opened an office in one of her parents’ buildings. She met and married Earle Strebe, a movie projectionist who worked at The Desert Inn.
Zaddie and Ed Bunker divorced after their daughter married. Together, the couple had purchased a sizable amount of real estate in Palm Springs. She was awarded all the real estate and a large portion of the land they purchased in the mountains. Years later, when she talked about the 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 deal.
With the help of her son-in-law, Zaddie built a movie theater on the site of the original garage. Strebe ran the theatre and was very successful. In 1936, when Julia Carnell asked Strebe to open another movie house in the yet-to-be-opened Plaza Theatre. Zaddie continued to invest in real estate, buying and leasing properties. From her modest beginnings, her holdings grew to include several major buildings, including the Chi-Chi, drugstores, restaurants, and apartment buildings.
When asked about her personal wealth, she responded, “I am rich in health and interests, but then I’ve always been rich because I never wanted anything I couldn’t have.” Bunker never remarried. She was well known for having an adventurous spirit. She loved to ride her horse up into the canyons to her ranch in Anza. She was one of the founding members of the Desert Riders.
Zaddie Bunker began taking flying lessons in 1946, at age 60, showing the same adventurous spirit that had defined much of her life.
Bunker also helped shape Palm Springs’ aviation future. She was instrumental in the formation of the Aero Palm Springs Company, a group of private investors that supported the conversion of the Palm Springs Army Air Base into the Palm Springs Municipal Airport. In 1952, she served as president of that corporation.
On Oct. 22, 1959, at 72, she participated in President Eisenhower’s People-to-People program and flew to Seville, Spain. City officials greeted her, and 80 girls from a Spanish orphanage presented her with a large bouquet of carnations. She delivered a letter from Palm Springs Mayor Frank Bogert to city officials. That same year, she sat at the controls of a US Air Force F-100 Super Sabre jet as they broke the sound barrier.
Her family made up an excuse for Zaddie to fly into the Burbank airport, and much to her surprise, she was met there by Ralph Edwards and a film crew from the television show “This is Your Life.” When she walked into the television studio, her family was waiting to celebrate her amazing life and her many accomplishments.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: The story of Zaddie Bunker, one of Palm Springs’ early entrepreneurs
Reporting by Renee Brown, Special to The Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Renee Brown, Special to The Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
