I love this photo. A young man in a uniform, with his girl (wife? sister?) holding on to him while he looks away. There's the faithful dog in the foreground, the horse in the background, and the mysterious adobe wall behind them.Who are they? I have no idea. The photo is from our family archives, so I assume I'm related to someone in the picture. The uniform suggests a military school rather than, say, the army, but I don't know. Her dress suggests late 19th or early 20th century. I'd love to know, but perhaps that would destroy the stories that I can make up in my head.
4 comments:
That is Lucy Roberts, whom we knew as Aunt Lou. She is grandpa's sister. She had a dress shop in Las Cruces, and we have several pictures of her modeling clothes she carried in her store. I think they must have been photos that were printed in the newspaper for advertisements.
The man is her son, Bob Roberts. She was a widow, as her husband was killed in Mexico. The Smiths (all except our cousin John) have romantacized his death, linking it to running guns to Pancho Villa. However, John says that it was nothing like that, though I do think there was a train involved.
Liz - My version of the story was that Grandpa's brother Bob was killed while trying to escape from custody after being arrested for running guns to Pancho Villa. He fell between the cars of a train and was run over. I'm not sure from your post if the Bob Roberts in the pic is the gun runner or the son of the gun runner. Did Grandad name Mom after his sister? Seems likely. She was named Lucy but was called Lou. Lovely ladyin the picture, by the way.
Grandpa had no brothers. He had only sisters. But you're right, I think it was young Bob that died in Mexico. He left young children. Jeanne was in touch with his daughter. John will know.
Yes, mother was named after Aunt Lou. Her name was Lucy Lucinda. The Alice came from grandmother's sister, Alice. Do you remember Aunt Alice? I have a picture of her somewhere. You know, she stayed with her mother when Nick Sanders took Grandma and Fred and headed back to Missouri. She was sick--had the measles or something--or he would have taken her, too. Anyway, before Grandma took her two children and left her no-good husband and went to seek refuge with Mammy (her mother), Alice was married and gone. Married a French Canadian who worked on the railroad. So Grandma and Aunt Alice didn't meet up again until they were grown and mothers. I don't know when they first reunited, but they were good friends when they were old.
Lucy Smith Roberts was married to Quarterman Baker Roberts, and he died before they left Texas, I think. Or, I think, he came west with them but returned to Texas for some reason and died there. Oh dear, I used to have it down cold, and now I can't remember.
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