Editing Bonnie and Clyde (section)

==Bonnie Parker==
[[File:Bonnie Parker BC10.jpg|thumb|Bonnie Parker, {{Circa}} 1932–1933]]
'''Bonnie Elizabeth Parker''' was born in 1910 in [[Rowena, Texas]], the second of three children. Her father, Charles Robert Parker (1884–1914), was a bricklayer who died when Bonnie was four years old.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Strickland |first=Kristi |date=1976 |title=Parker, Bonnie |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/parker-bonnie |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref> Her widowed mother, Emma (Krause) Parker (1885–1944), moved her family back to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in [[West Dallas]] where she worked as a seamstress.<ref>Guinn, p. 46</ref> As an adult, Bonnie wrote poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cinetropic.com/bonnieandclyde/sal.html|title=The Story of Suicide Sal – Bonnie Parker 1932|work=cinetropic.com|access-date=April 21, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100318055510/http://www.cinetropic.com/bonnieandclyde/sal.html|archive-date=March 18, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> and "The Trail's End", the latter more commonly known as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cinetropic.com/janeloisemorris/commentary/bonn%26clyde/parkerpoem.html|title=The Story of Bonnie and Clyde|work=cinetropic.com|access-date=April 21, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213121222/http://www.cinetropic.com/janeloisemorris/commentary/bonn%26clyde/parkerpoem.html|archive-date=February 13, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Parker was a bright child who thrived on attention. She enjoyed performing on stage and dreamt of becoming an actress.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Read Bonnie Parker's Poem 'The Story of Bonnie and Clyde' |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/bonnie-parker-poem-bonnie-and-clyde-1779293 |access-date=June 26, 2024 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> In her second year in high school, Parker met Roy Thornton (1908–1937). The couple dropped out of school and married on September 25, 1926, six days before her 16th birthday.<ref>Phillips, p. xxxvi; Guinn, p. 76</ref> Their marriage was marred by his frequent absences and brushes with the law and proved to be short-lived. They never divorced, but their paths never crossed again after January 1929. Parker was still wearing the wedding ring Thornton had given her when she died.<ref group=notes>A few months after their breakup, Thornton was convicted and imprisoned for robbery. Parker told her mother, "I didn't get [a divorce] before Roy was sent up, and it looks sort of dirty to file for one now." Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p. 56</ref> Thornton was in prison when he heard of her death, commenting, "I'm glad they jumped out like they did. It's much better than being caught."<ref name="roy" /> Sentenced to five years for robbery in 1933 and after attempting several prison breaks from other facilities, Thornton was killed while trying to escape from the [[Huntsville State Prison]] on October 3, 1937.

After she left Thornton, Parker moved back in with her mother and worked as a waitress in [[Dallas]]. One of her regular customers was postal worker [[Ted Hinton]]. In 1932, he joined the Dallas County Sheriff's Department and eventually served as a member of the [[wikt:posse#Noun|posse]] that killed Bonnie and Clyde.<ref>Guinn, p. 79</ref> Parker briefly kept a diary early in 1929 when she was aged 18, writing of her loneliness, her impatience with life in Dallas, and her love of photography.<ref>Parker, Cowan and Fortune, pp. 55–57</ref>