Nannie Dunkin was a very familiar name to the people of Bloomington for many years. She was head of the Associated Charities from 1901 until 1915, when she accepted two positions with the county as probationer and investigator for the Mother's Pension Act. She was already acting in both of these positions in a part time capacity, but the county commissioners felt that her full time attention was needed. She therefore withdrew from the Associated Charities for this work. The salary was $50 a month for each position. On this salary she raised her daughter in a boarding house on Mulberry Street.
The Associated Charities started in 1900, when 8 independent charities in McLean county were banded together under a single board. Mrs. Dunkin joined that board in 1901 as secretary and overseer and continued in that capacity until 1915.
She was born in 1867 in Normal, the daughter of Knox P and Matilda P Taylor. She attended the schools of Normal and Eureka College. In 1895, she married Robert R Dunkin, an attorney from Sedalia Missouri. They lived in Omaha, Nebraska in 1900, but shortly after the 1900 census Nannie returned to McLean County. In July 1901 she had a daughter, Mildred Elizabeth. When Mrs. Dunkin moved to Bloomington she styled herself as a widow (using her first name rather than her husband's) and the 1920 census showed her as a widow. (However, Robert Dunkin died in Missouri in 1944) Nannie remarried in January of 1920 to Dwight C Herrick, who died in 1926. At the time of her death on December 21, 1937, she was living with her daughter, Mrs. Henry H Carrithers at 1112 E. Jefferson Street.
Mrs. Dunkin succeeded in raising her daughter singlehandedly, most likely thanks to her education and employability. She worked all through her daughter's childhood to better the lives of women left destitute and to improve the lives of the poor of McLean County.