The Keys Sisters – Part 2

About a year and a half ago I posted a photo of the Keys sisters.  It was taken around 1894 when the girls were just teenagers.  I explained my relation to them.  I’ll refresh that information for you.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and then her mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  Daisy was born in 1876 in England to her parents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys.  She was the third child and the oldest daughter.

In this photo, as you can see, the girls are bit older.  In the middle of the photo is my great grandmother Daisy.  This photo was taken around 1951, so she would have been close to 75 years old.  Rosetta Ruth Keys was the next daughter to be born to Henry and Martha.  She went by her middle name Ruth and that is her on the left side of this photo.  She married Herbert Bryan and they had six children together.  She would have been around 72 in this photo.  The baby sister was Mabel Olive Keys and she was around 70 as she is seen here on the right.  She married Abraham Miller and they lived in the Kinder area with their four sons.

This photo is not that good of quality, but I still like it.  It’s one that my grandmother had and I took a photo of it when I was in college.  I don’t know where the original went.  I also have another photo that was taken the same day that was of Daisy and H. C. Phenice with their children.  I don’t know if it was some kind of family reunion (like we are having on June 3 in Jennings.  Hint. Hint.) or if the families just got together from time to time since they lived in the same area.  I wonder if there are any other photos of the sisters out there?  I’d sure like to see more.  What I’d really like to see would be a photo of all five siblings.  They all settled in Louisiana and lived within 20 miles of one another.

Of course the family has spread far and wide since that time.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is family in every state.  I started to figure out where some of them were, but it became too daunting.  East coast, west coast, north coast, south coast – we’ve got it covered.  All because of the dreams of Henry and Martha over 130 years ago.  Henry died before they could act on that dream, but Martha followed through as courageously as possible.  And these girls were part of it.  These lovely, enduring, timeless girls – The Keys Sisters.

---

Aug. 2020 Update – I enhanced that old photo to make it a little clearer.  I think it improved it.