When Grandma Played a Man

Members of Raymond Methodist Church who put on a play circa 1946. (Raymond, Louisiana)

I’ve been planning on this post for a while.  I remember this photo from when I was a kid, because I thought it was interesting that my grandmother was dressed like a man and had a moustache and a beard.  That’s not the way she dressed when she was around us!  In fact, I don’t remember my grandmother wearing anything but dresses.  Both of my grandmothers, now that I think about it.  So seeing a photo of her dressed like a man was decidedly different.

The grandmother in question is my mom’s mom.  She was born Myrtle Sylvia Phenice on December 19, 1906, in Jefferson Davis Parish.  Her parents were Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Keys Phenice.  Harry was from Pennsylvania by way of Nebraska, and Daisy was from England.  So my grandmother was the first generation on my mom’s side to be born in Louisiana.  She got married to Fred D. Bucklin in 1930 and started a family.  So by the time that 1946 came around, they had all five of their children.

I mention 1946, because that’s around the time this photo was taken.  Even though I remember this photo from when I was young, I didn’t end up with a copy of it when I started collecting photos.  I got this copy in 2017 from my cousin John.  I just took a quick photo of it when we were visiting after the Keys Family Reunion that year.  It’s not a great quality photo, but I still like it a lot.  What kept me from writing about it was that I couldn’t remember the name of the character that Grandma played.  I’m pretty sure it was a comic piece but didn’t know much more about it.

Then a week or so ago I got a letter full of photos from Aunt Loris.  I wasn’t expecting that, but it was very welcomed!  I was especially excited about it because she sent me some photos that I had never seen before.  I’ll be sharing some of them in future posts, don’t you worry.  But what got me to finally post this photo was the fact that Aunt Loris had labeled it.  Not only did she know the name of the character that Grandma played, but she also knew the name of everyone that was in the photo!  The photo wasn’t a good quality and it was backward, so I went ahead and used the previous photo I got from my cousin.

The photo was from the late 40s (I gave it estimate of 1946 when comparing it other photos of the same people.) and it was of members of the Raymond Methodist Church who put on a play.  I’ve seen a lot of the names before, because Mama, Grandma, and many members of their family attended that church.  My grandfather’s mom was also a member.  So there’s a lot of history shared in that small town church.  I won’t tell you all the history (because I don’t know it!), but I will share with you all of the names of the people in the photo.

From left to right, we have Jay Jester, Grace Bolles Jester, Buck Jester in overalls, and Anne Jester next to him.  Then, in the role of Saul Silverstein we have Myrtle Bucklin, my dear grandmother.  She’s wearing a man’s suit, a moustache, and a beard.  She went all out!  Continuing to the right we have Sally Marshall, Vivian Jester, Harold Brown (in the Lafayette shirt which helped me to determine which image was backward), Millie Compton, and Jesse Compton.  I don’t know the connection of all of the Jesters in this photo.  Nor do I know the connection between the Comptons.  I don’t think they are related to us.  They were members of the church family.

It’s so nice to receive unexpected treasures in the mail.  It was the second package I’ve received lately with old family photos.  The other one was from my dad’s side of the family with lots of photos of Patureau family members.  Then last weekend I was able to get my hands on some more old family photos.  Keep them coming!