Jesse Elnora Tiner Copes Skinner-The Rest of the Story

The Tiner Family

Alanson (Tony), Vinton, Big Mama, Lane, Jesse Lane, Pauline (Polly), Francis (Ottie), 

Wayne, Mary Adele (Mema), Joie (Judy), Nora, Mayme (c. 1930)  

 Elnora, we think, is the second person from the right in the light colored dress. 

In an earlier blog, "Piano Teachers and Learners in Sutherland Springs," I wrote about Elnora Tiner and her father's interest in her piano playing. That interest seems to have continued. The San Antonio Express, 3 July 1901, records the guests at the Southern Hotel in San Antonio. J. L. Tiner and his daughter, Nora (19), are among the guests. Possibly, he is again bringing her to another piano lesson in San Antonio. 

 

Interestingly, among the other guests at the hotel are Mrs. Creech (Emma) and her children Edna (12) and Irvin (7). Irvin is my husband's grandfather. Perhaps the Tiners and the Creeches bumped into each other in the hallway. Here is a photo of the Southern Hotel. This is a copy print of the west side of Main Plaza, accessed through the Portal to Texas History. The east and north facades of the multi-story Southern Hotel are visible above Paul Asher's dry goods store (far left). San Fernando Cathedral stands in the center with several wagons in front. The photo is from The Ernst Wilhelm Raba Photograph Collection. The date on the back of the photo is 1880s.

Elnora is listed in Who's Who Among the Women in San Antonio and Southwest Texas in 1917.  The entry describes her as a teacher of piano, active in the Baptist Church, and a suffragist. 

 She was educated at Coronal Institute in San Marcos and had a special course of Study at Southwestern University at Georgetown.

 Coronal Institute 1907, accessed through the Portal to Texas History 

Private Collection of T. B. Willis

Elnora's interest in music continued throughout her life. A newspaper article in the San Antonio Express, 11 June 1950, p. 24 records an invitation by the St. Louis Institute of Music to attend the summer sessions in Chicago as an honored guest.

 

Jesse Elnora Tiner married Jesse Tiner Cope on 5 October 1902. Jesse Lane Tiner's Diary of 1898-1900 records snippets of the very chaperoned budding romance between Nora and Jesse. She and Jesse went to La Vernia together to buy supplies, to a Masonic celebration, a baseball game, Jesse bought her a coat and vest. Lane, Nora, Frances, and Jesse went to the fair in San Antonio on the train for 80¢. Sometimes she went to church in Stockdale with Jesse. Jesse Cope worked for Nora's father. After they married they lived in Karnes City. Jesse ran a cotton gin. He had learned that trade working for Jesse Lane Tiner at his cotton gin in Sutherland Springs.They had two children: Jesse Tiner Cope, Jr. and Johnel Cope. Jesse Tiner Cope was killed in a car wreck 6 May 1940 at the age of 66.

I have not been able to locate her marriage certificate. However, at some point Nora married Joseph H. Skinner, a farmer in Karnes City. He had lost his wife in 1936. Joseph H. Skinner died of heart failure on 9 September 1943 at the age of 73. 

In the 1950 Census, Elnora is living in San Antonio, 727 Gramercy St. She died of ovarian cancer on 23 August 1957, at the age of 75. On her death certificate, her occupation is listed as music teacher. She is buried in the Karnes City Cemetery next to Jesse Cope.