Herkimer county historical society
mohawk native
Polly Jenkins
By Susan Perkins, Town of Manheim Historian
Mary Lucille Zoller, a/k/a/ Polly Jenkins (1903-1983), was born in Mohawk, Herkimer County, NY. She was the daughter of George Alonzo (1877-1955) and Bessie (Riley) Zoller (1882-1942). Mary had siblings George (1904-1998), Charles Francis (1908-1944), Iola (1910-1992), Veronica (1912-1942), Cora Mae (1916-1997), and Pauline (1919-2001). The Zollers are all buried in Columbia Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery. The Zollers lived on Elizabethtown Road in the Town of Columbia. George Alonzo owned a farm there. In 1930 the Zollers were living at 18 West State Street in Ilion, NY. In Wayne W. Danie’s book The Women of Country Music, published in 2003, that author has a chapter in his book titled Polly Jenkins and Her Musical Plowboys: a Vaudeville Valedictory. He starts with “the debut of the first variety shows suitable for double audiences (i.e., suitable for both men and women) at Tony Pastor’s 14th Street House in New York, known as vaudeville, was in 1881.” Daniel’s maintains Polly Jenkins was the first and probably only woman to headline a country music act on the vaudeville circuit. Mary was educated in Mohawk schools. She first played piano professionally at the Bates Theater in Mohawk when she was 13 years old. She also played at the Big Ben
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