Medical Monday . . . Nursing school in Iowa ca. 1920

I so often skip around in topics that I thought before I leave this topic, I should share a few more photos with you.   This one had no identification and was a loose photograph just stuck in between the pages.  My grandmother, Berenice Moldt is on the far left. The black and white photos don't show off her red hair and freckles!  Again, I have two photographs taken at the same time that have slight differences?  Was this one the final or the first?

My grandmother liked this one best since it is the one she fastened in her album.  That would be in line with her sense of humor and other photos she has taken.

"Just practising on Joe!!!"

"

          Left: "Two in One"                                              Right: "Dressed but not acting like doctors"

"Dr. Lynch and us"

"Leah- remember Dr. Crowley has a wife at home"

 

The unanswered question:  Is this Mercy Hospital in Des Moines or in Clinton?  Do the habits of the nun give any clues? I believe the Dr. Crowley mentioned is Dr. Daniel Crowley  from another photo that refers to him as Daniel.

I have intentionally left out the photos with captions such as, "A rose between two thorns" and "Four of a kind! Two pair of boobs".  There were several of photos with the doctors or the male staff members, but the none with them and the nuns.  Very interesting . . .

One Thing Leads to Another

  In my previous lengthy blog post, I mentioned that my new to me cousin John told how his basement had flooded about four years ago, and most of his old family photos were ruined.  Can you hear me sobbing?  My mind instantly pictured my overflowing basement that I had promised to clean several years ago knee deep with water.  John's story was just the incentive I needed.  When I returned home I started throwing out and organizing the basement since I still had a few days before I returned to work. There were a couple of boxes that had an open top and my name in marker on the side.  I recognized some of my old high school memorabilia junk, but one box held undiscovered treasures.  After lifting a 1965 copy of the Tiger's Tale school paper from the top, I saw the photo above.  I have never seen this photo before. The young girl on the right is my grandmother Berenice Moldt Kennelly at about age 10.  The boy is her younger brother Edward T. Moldt who was always known as "Doc".  I have no idea who the other two girls are.  If any family members read this and recognize either girl, please let me know.  With those hats, maybe it was Sunday and they were on their way to church.  As I went through more of this particular box, I realized that it must have been one that my mother kept.  There were newspaper clippings of anything and everything I ever did as well as most of my old report cards.  Funny . . . because I remember myself as a much better student than my report cards show.  In first grade at Holy Saviour in Wichita, Kansas I had a consistent "C" in religious studies, and the card was full of checks for areas that needed improvement.   Mom had saved every letter I ever wrote home from college and after reading one four page letter of how distraught I was over breaking up with my boyfriend, I left the others.  Yuck!





Stuck in with my high school odds and ends were these photos, possibly circa 1945, of my grandparents, Berenice (the little girl with the hair bow above) and Ed Kennelly. It is perfect that I should share them on a "Wordless Wednesday" because really what can you say? 

I love old photos!

There's No Business Like Show Business

As I mentioned in my previous post, written before my lovely restful Spring vacation in Florida, my grandfather marched to a different drummer than his father or brothers.  I don't know when or how he started in the theatre business, but as you could see by the letter head, he was employed by the Shubert Princess Theatre in 1924 when my mother was born.  He loved show business and went on to be a theatre manger his entire life, moving from live theatre in his early years to cinemas later in his life.  My grandmother was always with him, helping out wherever she could, usually taking the tickets. 

The back side of the photo below says this is the cast of Abie's Irish Rose, but it doesn't say the year and the theatre was listed in the corner that has broken off.  My assumption is that the actress with the flowers played the lead. and the clothing suggests late twenties or early thirties. My grandfather, Edward Kennelly, is the standing man on the far left and my grandmother, Berenice Moldt Kennelly, is seated on the floor far right.  I am sure that everyone is in the cast but them.

The cast of Abie's Irish Rose - Chicago ca. 1924-26

Peg Kennelly as a bridesmaid in Abie's Irish Rose

I have never been able to identify anyone in the cast. Really, I have tried a bit - but only a little bit.  Okay, this is what I know.  My grandfather's sister, Margaret, known as Peg, at some point was part of the cast as a bridesmaid.  The story told to me by her daughter was that the show was going to go "on the road" but when she asked her father, he wouldn't allow it saying that she was too young.   Peg, born in 1906, was probably under twenty so that helps to narrow the date somewhat.  I have analyzed and looked at this photo many times and still cannot pick out Peg so I have concluded that she is not in this photo.  Was she in an earlier or later cast??  It would be fun to have a playbill from the production and so, with my fingers crossed, I have placed a permanent search on Ebay in the hope that one will surface eventually.  I did find a postcard of the Princess Theatre . . . but is it worth $7.99 plus shipping? 

I have also discovered a couple of newspaper ads for the play and brief information about the various actresses that played the lead using the Newspaper Archive database that is available for free through my local library.  My intent was to post this last night but it infuriated annoyed me that I couldn't locate them in my well organized computer files. Then today after work I stumbled upon remembered where I filed them.

The newspaper announcement printed in the Chicago Daily Tribune on the right has the date May 25, 1924.  The leading lady on the left is Miss Lorna Carroll.  "Miss Carroll is the new occupant of the title-role in "Abies Irish Rose," which is beyond its two-hundredth Chicago performance.  She is the third young woman to have the part in the Studebaker Run . . . Biographical detail concerning her career are meagre.  Such as are provided by the press-agent it have it that she was dragged shrieking from the New York cast by the author-manager, Miss Nichols; and it doesn't matter:  the picture classifies as news."
 I have tried to match the photo of the leading lady in my photo with this one, and I think it is a pretty fair match.  But how long did she have this part at the Studebaker??   

So now I conclude . . .if my grandfather was at the Shubert Princess Theatre in October of 1924 as indicated by his letter announcing my mother's birth, then the photo had to be after that.  And if  . . . on January 22, 1928 the Chicago Daily Tribune prints the article at left announcing that Miss Patricia Quinn is appearing in Abie's Irish Rose at the Kedzie Theatre . . . then the date range for my photo is most likely 1925-27.  It also says that this production is a touring company, but doesn't mention whether this performance is at the end of their tour or the beginning.  Hmmmmmm . . .this also means my grandfather must have changed jobs from the Princess to the Studebaker Theatre.  What was his position at the Studebaker? - it must have had at least some responsibility to have his photo taken with the cast. 

Do you have information you can add to this story?
Do you have theatre people in your family?
Can you identify any of the actors in my photo?
Do you have photos of the Studebaker Theatre ca. 1925?


One of these days I will find that missing corner.  I am just sure it is someplace safe!









Marriage Monday

 

The beautiful bride - Anna Marie Kennelly - date approx. 1922-1924

This is the wedding of my grand aunt Anna Marie Kennelly, my grandfather's sister. 

Front left to right: Mary Kennelly (sister), Margaret aka Peg Kennelly (sister), Anna Marie (bride), Berenice Moldt Kennelly (my grandmother and sister-in-law), unknown girl

Back left to right: Jimmy Fox (cousin), Dr.Leon Farley (groom), Owen Kennelly (brother), Edward P. Kennelly, Jr. (my grandfather)

A few photos sit on your heart and won't leave.  For me, this is one of those photos.  My grandparents must have been newly married, and my great grandmother in all likelihood made the dresses since before her marriage, she had been a personal seamstress for Mrs. Potter Palmer.  She knew her way around a needle! Since I usually examine the clothing in old photographs before I look at the faces this was a feast. My grandmother looks so beautiful and my grandfather so young. . . was this photo before or after their daughter Margel died in 1922?  And Anna Marie did not know that she would have a short marriage, her husband would die, then she and her infant daughter would move back with her mother and Auntie  permanently - at 2338 W. Washington Blvd. - a house filled with family.

The Spoons of Berenice

I have just returned from a glorious weekend knitting retreat with twelve knitting friends.  Our cabin looked out on the frozen lake, there was a continual fire in the fireplace, snowflakes out the window, lots of laughter and answers for all of our knitting questions.  It definitely was rejuvenating.

Because most (but if you insist on honesty, then all) of the ladies in the group are not interested in genealogy, I tried to keep my family history comments to myself, but . . . some did accidentally slip out.  Before I left, my Famuggle daughter warned reminded me just how boring genealogy is to others.  Since they are not technically family, my knitting friends cannot be labeled Famuggles but rather they belong to a sub set called Fruggles.  After one such slip up, I decided the next time to try and turn the conversation to something more universally acceptable.  I asked each person if they had a cherished family possession that had been passed down to them, and why did they cherish it?  Amazingly, everyone had something, and some had difficulty choosing just one.  I heard about Christmas ornaments, family bibles, immigrant trunks, and a chest of drawers.  As each person told about their possession their voice became animated, and the emotion attached to the object was clear.  Here was a group of non-genealogists sharing their family history. . . and enjoying it.

My question was a result of an unpublished post that had been languishing in my que for several months. . . The Spoons of Berenice. Several times, I would try to write only to delete most of it.  It just wouldn't come together.  Every Christmas for her first thirteen years my grandmother, Berenice Moldt, received a sterling silver spoon as a gift.  The spoons were sometimes beautifully elaborate, and, occasionally, dreadfully plain.

Each spoon had the year engraved on it and usually her name, always misspelled as Bernice, or her initials.  Sadly, she told me when I was younger who gave them to her, but I have long forgotten.  Now I am on a quest to find out.


The first spoon tells us that these were Christmas gifts because of the complete date of  December 25, 1899 on the handle.  I assume that it is a gift from a woman, possibly a grandmother or an aunt.  It would not be her mother with the misspelled name.  Her name was Berenice (rhymes with furnace) rather than the more common Ber-niece.

One of my favorites it the 1908 spoon which had an image of St. Patrick's church in Clinton, IA carved into the bowl section.   This leads me to believe that the relative was Catholic, possibly a member of the church, and her father's side of the family was not.  My grandmother had aunts on her mother's side, Elizabeth (Nettie) McDonnell, Florence (Flossie) Holdgrafer, Augusta (Gussie) Brown and Laura Tietjen - so maybe it was one of them.

Strangely, there are two spoons with a 1903 date. 

The back of the spoon above.

 The last date we have on a spoon is 1912.  Her grandmother died in 1914, but wouldn't she have known how to spell her name?  I can just imagine the polite "thank you", but lack of enthusiasm, that probably accompanied the opening of these predictable yearly gifts by the young girl pictured above. Yet, this is the gift she chose to keep and cherish and travel through life with her.  My grandparents moved often so possessions were chosen carefully. Was it the gift or the giver that gave these spoons such importance?   I wonder . . . did anyone else in the family receive spoons such as these as a gift?  I have no idea.  If you do, please contact me.

This then, I've discovered, is the secret bridge from our world to the Famuggle world.  We can talk with Famuggles and Fruggles about family history if we pretend it is just about the object.   Shhhh . . .we know the truth.  I invite you to try it. See if you get the same reaction that I did.  Do you think it's possible we might even convert a few . . . . . .