Rose Esser Kemp was born in 1900 with a strong pioneer spirit. She was a third-generation descendant of the Esser and Schuetz families.
She grew up near Kendalia and was the youngest of three girls. All the girls worked on their parent’s farm.
Rose was surrounded by relatives and friends on the neighboring farms and had an idyllic childhood.
They were members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at Honey Creek. They could seldom attend church services due to its distance.
However, there were several large Catholic families in the Kendalia area, so a traveling priest came once a month to hold mass.
They met in Roses’s grandmother’s house. Everyone brought food and it was a time of great fellowship for the families.
One day Rose and her classmates were walking home down the long road from the one-room schoolhouse and sat down on the dirt road to rest and snack. Suddenly a loud noise startled them.
They jumped into the side ditch just before Paul Holekamp passed by in his Model T Ford. This was the first automobile they had ever seen and one of the first in Boerne.
Rose’s parents moved the family closer to Boerne. She attended Boerne High School and graduated in 1916. She secured her first job serving as a tutor.
Several families in the area opposed public schools so classes were held in private homes. Rose received $13 a month plus room and board to teach a group of children ages 7 to 15.
A year later, she ended her teaching engagement and took a position in the Dienger General Store. Rose felt she was fortunate to find room and board with an older couple who lived on Main Street. They delighted in her company and insisted that she dine with them each evening.
One fateful day in September 1921, Rose walked into a cafe and eyed a young, good-looking stranger. Two months later, Rose wed Leonard D. Kemp.
L.D. wanted to seek his fortune in the oil fields of East Texas. It was difficult for Rose to leave her familiar surroundings. But a few years later, when Rose was pregnant with their first child, the couple were ready to return home to be near family. They loaded a pickup and arrived in Boerne just two days before their son, Leonard Jr., was born.
Rose and L.D. settled on a farm, but L.D. was often gone, working second jobs. One such day, 3-yearold Leonard Jr. called out for help. To Rose’s absolute horror, she found that he was high atop the windmill.
The fearless Rose, her second pregnancy almost due, climbed to the top of the windmill, and wrangled the toddler to the ground.
She gave birth to her daughter, Bonnie, three days later.
1933 was a rough time for the family, so the Kemps moved into Boerne. Bonnie was 4 and Leonard Jr. 7 when Rose decided she needed a skill to help with the finances. She took a beauty course in San Antonio and, once licensed, opened a beauty shop in her home on East San Antonio Avenue. She operated the beauty shop for more than 50 years.
In 1949 it fell to Rose to be the major breadwinner in the family. She was a resilient and determined Texas woman and did whatever was necessary. For the next 13 years, in addition to her beauty shop, she could be found working a second job at the Plaza Theatre.
She lived a full life until her passing in 1994 at the age of 94. She is buried in Boerne cemetery.
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