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 Parker was four years old. 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. As an adult, Bonnie wrote poems such as 'The Story of Suicide Sal' and 'The Trail's End', the latter more commonly known as 'The Story of Bonnie and Clyde'.
There are several different accounts of Parker's first meeting with Clyde Barrow. One of the more credible versions is that they met on January 5, 1930, at the West Dallas home of Barrow's friend, Clarence Clay. Barrow was 20 years old, and Parker was 19. Parker was out of work and staying with a female friend to assist her during her recovery from a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was in the kitchen making hot chocolate.
