On September 14, 1892, 18-year-old Kate Clark married George Barker, 10 years her senior, which was concerning to her parents. Of course, this only made her more eager to do it, notes Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian in “Ma Barker.”
George was employed as a farmer at the time, but young Kate saw the promise of wealth if she stuck with him. Short, blue-eyed, and dark-featured, George was quiet, as per Biography, and lacked the ambition Kate wanted, allowing her to dominate the relationship, notes the Kansas City Star.
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In an FBI document, J. Edgar Hoover described George as lacking motivation. This was hardly fair. Over the years, George held several steady albeit low-paying jobs, primarily farming corn and beans and working in local mines. The couple’s first home, described by authors Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian as “a dilapidated miner’s shack,” was hardly the life of luxury Kate longed for but George promised he’d build it up into a great homestead.
The pair had their first son, Herman, in 1894 (per Enss and Kazanjian in “Ma Barker“). He soon had three little brothers: Lloyd was born in 1896, Arthur (nicknamed “Doc”) in 1899, and Fred in 1903. According to Enss and Kazanjian, Kate handled the boys while George worked, although he managed to take them fishing and teach them how to shoot. Over the course of their marriage, George worked various odd jobs, including at the Crystal Springs Water Company (per The Famous People). But it was never enough for Kate.
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