Zenora “Nora” Rose Moore, was born in Georgia in 1883 to a Cherokee-African mother and a freed slave father. Her parents relocated to Tennessee, where Nora was raised. Together with her sister, Nora joined a traveling vaudeville troupe as a chorus girl/dancer.
Nora and Bertran met on the road and traveled together as part of the same Dixieland vaudeville troupe. After financial difficulties brought the troupe to an end in 1912, the young couple traveled to Vancouver looking for work. He found work at the American Club, and with a gainful employment, they could settle and start a family. The Hendrix’s settled at 827 East Georgia, and raised four children (their fifth passed away at two months of age), all of whom were born in Vancouver. Bertran held the position of steward at the American and Transportation Clubs, eventually taking the job of first porter at the newly opened Quilchena Golf and Country club in 1925 until his sudden death in 1934.
Both Bertran and Nora were founding and active members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Nora was a pillar of the black community in Vancouver, showing her own musical talents by leading the church’s choir. She lived in Vancouver for several decades and briefly moved to Seattle to be with her son Al, coming back to Vancouver and living there until her passing in 1984. Nora lived to be 100.
