Rose Mary Walls

The mother of Jeanette Walls and her siblings can be described in one word. Selfish. Rose has four children that she would disown in a heartbeat if it meant pursuing her own dreams. Being an advocate of family strength and togetherness, she decided it would be best to keep the Texas land in the family rather than sell it and raise the kids up properly. She highly believes in self-sufficiency and ignores the needs of her children. Although this belief taught the children not to be dependent on other people or things and eventually led to their success later in life, Mrs. Walls hypocritically relied on her other family members to pursue her art dream. By using her deceased mother’s money and house, she bought art supply and created her own painting/writing space. She only worked two teaching jobs in Jeanette’s lifetime yet she painted all those years (She wasn’t buying the paint with her own money). And even then she still never got her career off the ground.