Girls and Their Dolls

1938-Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder

Betty Lou Bucklin and Kara Lee Sowder at Christmastime 1938 in Fayetteville, Arkansas

This is one of my mom’s favorite photos of herself.  It was taken in 1938, which was during the Great Depression.  The thing that made it special according to my mom was that it was a photo of her holding a “real doll.”  The thing that makes it special to me is that she was always satisfied with what she had.

Because she didn’t have a “real doll,” but her cousin had two and let her take a photo with one of them.  And that was pretty special for little Betty Lou Bucklin!  As you can see, she was quite happy taking her photo with that little doll.  And with her cousin, of course!

But she’s not really a cousin.  My mom’s mom’s sister was Grace Phenice and she was married to Ray Sowder who was from Arkansas.  The girl’s name is Kara Lee and she is the daughter of Ray’s brother Hugh who was a professional photographer.  Kara Lee and Betty Lou created a lasting memory on that long ago visit in 1938.  (At least for my mom.  She could remember Kara Lee’s name even when she had memory troubles.  I found Kara Lee on Facebook and she had the same photo, but she stated, “I don’t remember who the little girl is.”)

Isabel Crixell Champion on the right in about 1904

Elvira Crixell and her cousin Isabel Crixell circa 1904

I can’t remember when I first saw that photo of my mom with the doll, but I can remember when I first saw the next photo of Girls With Dolls.  It was a couple of weeks ago when I was researching the Patureau side of the family.  Some distant cousins on that line have been living deep in southern Texas for several generations.  The French Patureaus there have mixed more with the Mexican population as compared to our family which has more Cajun heritage.  And the photo of the the two girls with their dolls from circa 1904 definitely caught my eye.  The girl on the right was Isabel Crixell, my third cousin once removed.  She was born in 1900 and lived to be over 100 years old.  The girl on the left is only identified as “a Kowalski little girl.”  I’m positive that she is Isabel’s first cousin Elvira Crixell who was born in 1901.  She later married a Kowalski.

But in this photo, they are just little girls posing with their dolls.  They don’t look quite as happy as my mom was with her real doll, but they do look happier than one particular little girl in the next photo.  This time, instead of going thirty years in the more distant past, we’re coming forward thirty years from that first photo.

1966-12-24 Landry Family Christmas gathering

Landry cousins at Christmas time in 1966

No posting of Girls With Their Dolls in my family could be complete without this next photo.  This is from Christmas of 1966 at my Mee Maw’s house.  Tim was showing off a car, I was showing off my new sniper rifle, and the girls were showing off their new dolls.  Karen looked very satisfied with the doll she was holding.  Lauren and her doll both seem to have gotten something in their eyes.  Jeanne is happy that she and her doll made it into the photo.  Tricia (with the glasses) and Shirley (with the hair) have graduated to holding real children.  Tricia has Colleen, while Shirley has Mona.  Rob is happy to be the center of attention.

And then there’s poor little Jamie.  She wanted a doll of her own to hold.  She had her own doll, but she didn’t get to hold it for the photo.  Maybe she wanted Karen to have a special moment with a borrowed ‘real doll’ like our mom had?  Maybe she didn’t realize that she’d feel lonely without holding her doll when everyone else was holding theirs?  Or maybe something else happened.  Either way – that was long ago and all is forgiven.

2 comments

  • Isabel Crixell Champion

    For those curious about the Patureau genealogy and the connection with the little girl in the middle photo, check out these additions. She is a Patureau relative from a large branch of the line. If you read her obituary, you’ll see that she lived to 102 years of age and she had a rather large family of her own at the time of her death.

    Isabel Crixell family tree

    This family tree shows the connection to my line of the Patureau family. Piere F. Patureau and Anne Rose Machet are my great great great grandparents. I recently posted a photo of their son (and my great great grandfather) on this site.

  • I made an exciting find today. I found the other little girl in the photo of my mom with the doll. Mama had said that the girl’s name was Kara Lee and she was related to the Sowders. Sure enough, her name was Kara Lee Sowder. That sounds like an easy discovery, but I was looking for her in the census to find out where she lived and there was no Kara Lee Sowder in the census. I won’t go into detail about how I found her, but I found her in the 1940 census listed as Trara Lee in Oklahoma! There was a transcription error on top of the fact that they didn’t identify her last name and she didn’t live in Arkansas like I was thinking. She is either the step daughter or daughter of Ray Sowder’s older brother who was only married to the mother for two or three years. Now to see if I can contact her.

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