Betty Lou in 1942

Here is a photo of my mom in 1942.  She was just a young girl living in Hathaway, Louisiana, with her parents, her three sisters, and her younger brother.  I’m pretty sure it is a school photo, though it doesn’t have the usual school’s name and year below it like most of the other ones I have of her.  But what else could it be?  She’s posed like your standard school portrait.

I was about to say that this was one of the two times that she tried out the hair style where she doesn’t have bangs.  I was thinking that it occurred at the time of this photo and then she tried it again in 1948, and all of the other years she had bangs.  But in looking back at the old photos, I realized I was wrong.  She had her hair pulled to the side from around 1941 all the way through to 1948.  That’s most of her school years!  How do I not notice these things?

It makes me wonder what other things I overlook when I read letters, Censuses, and old records about my ancestors.  It’s difficult to soak in all of the information when you look through so much information.  But I’m thinking I might have to revisit some of those documents I haven’t looked at in a while.  They might be a source for some good material for these family history posts.  I’m getting a little short on new photos to use.  I could always reuse some of the really good ones along with new discoveries about the subjects of the photos.

I’ve actually done that a few times already.  I’m surprised that it’s taken ten years to get low on new photos to share for the first time.  I know there are “new” photos out there that I haven’t seen yet.  I’ll definitely keep looking.  I do still have some good photos to share, like this one of 9-year-old Betty Lou Bucklin.  She went by Betty Lou all her life.  She said that when she started school, there were several Bettys around – Betty Jo Koll, Betty Stagg, Betty Fruge – so they all called her Betty Lou.  Though her family always called her that, too.  

This was around the time that her interest in music was starting to grow.  I shared a photo of her in her Rhythm Band at school from the same year.  In her memory book, she said that she started playing piano around this time, too.  The family was musical.  Grandma Bucklin – Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin – used to sing and play the piano and organ.  She learned that from her own mother – Daisy Henrietta Keys Phenice.  If you remember the musical recordings that I’ve shared, you’ll notice that Myrtle had a beautiful singing voice and had perfect pitch.  Daisy not so much.  She did provide wonderful accompaniment to her husband Harry Clifton Phenice on the recordings of him playing the fiddle.  Like I said, the family was musical.