In the 1930s, while
Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls, a musical show involving prisoners from
Huntsville Unit played on radio waves, one
Goree Unit prisoner, Reable Childs, suggested starting a band consisting of women from the Goree Unit. Of the original members, Mozelle McDaniel and Ruby Mae Morace served as the main singers. Georgia Fay Collins, Ruby Dell Guyton, and Bonnie Scott played the acoustic guitar. Lillie Mae Dudley played the bass fiddle. Childs played the banjo and the steel guitar. The band held its debut on July 10, 1940 at the
Huntsville Unit. Three months later, the prison system asked them to be the intermission singers at the
Texas Prison Rodeo. The band performed on Wednesday evenings in an auditorium in
Huntsville and its music was played on
WBAP, a radio station in
Fort Worth. The band had fans throughout the United States and they received mail, gifts, and marriage proposals from fans. Band members had been convicted of crimes like
cattle rustling, murder, robbery, and theft. Skip Hollandsworth of
Texas Monthly said that music historians do not pay attention to the band since the band never made a record and it never went on a national tour. The women never reunited to make reunion appearances on the radio or at the prison rodeo. McDaniel was the last known surviving member of the band. At a time before May 2003, McDaniel, then known as Mozelle Cash, died from a heart attack, induced by choking on food, while in a nursing home in
Tyler, Texas. McDaniel's burial site is in the Pines Cemetery, south of Tyler. McDaniel's obituary refers to her as "Mozelle Cash." Her nephew stated that she did not want to be listed as "Mozelle McDaniel Cash" in her obituary because "[s]he thought it was best that no one remember." ==In other media==