Mary Cornelia Crane Walton was called Mayme by her children and Gaga by her grandchildren and although she was just under 5 feet tall she was a bundle of energy. Her mother died when she was about 5 years old and her older sister Hodge and brother George helped raise her. The family located between Ft. Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas and Danville, Illinois where they had relatives. Her father was a carpenter and had been in the Confederate Light Artillery. She married Albert Foster Walton on April 16, 1897 in Ft. Smith, Arkansas and on the marriage license her name is given as Mayme. Bert and Mayme were a popular couple in early Ft. Smith as evidenced by a number of newspaper clippings from the society columns. In 1901 they entered a land lottery drawing in Oklahoma. Although their names weren't drawn they packed up and moved to the tent city in Lawton and opened a sundries store in a tent. She knew Geronimo, Judge Roy Bean, Belle Starr's daughter, Will Rogers, and loved to tell stories about the early days of Ft. Smith. Bert died when she was about 36 and she was left with nothing. She went to work selling lingerie and opened her home to boarders. She would get up before sunup, serve breakfast, get the kids ready for school and then go to work. She would then come home on her lunch hour, fix her boarders lunch and grab a bite herself and return to work. At the end of the day she would tally her receipts at work and when everything was in order she would go home, fix dinner for the boarders, do housework and whatever else was needed and go to bed around midnight. She worked for about twelve years this way. At some point in time she and the children moved to Jacksonville, Florida with her in-laws, probably at their urging. She worked in millinery during their time spent there. Gigie was not able to live there because of the climate and its effect on her asthma so they moved to Danville, Illinois to live with Hodge. Sometime in the 1920's the family relocated to Los Angeles, California with relatives where Gaga managed a bungalow court. Eventually Jimmie relocated to Bakersfield and Gaga and Gigie stayed in L.A. She dated Bill Albershart for a number of years before they finally married in 1949. Every weekend they would go to the Embassy Club to dance and where she and another woman cooked dinner for the crowd. Gaga was a very social person and never knew a stranger. Her 100th birthday party was a large reception held in Palm Desert with all her family and friends in attendance. Her health was good she immensely enjoyed visiting with everyone throughout that day and for several days afterwards.