Postcard Friendship Friday: Beatrice Ward

We can only guess how she got that hair so high...
Beatrice Irene WARD
Yoder Studio, Hoisington KS
This studio portrait has been in my "Swedish Side...but who?" file for years. Only after I promised a reader a photo of really big hair for this week's PFF was I finally able to ID the woman under it as my dad's second cousin Beatrice.

Until now, I'd never noticed Ms. Big Hair's resemblance to the young lady in the center of the photo below.

Ruby, Beatrice, and Howard Ward, Jr.
Grondal Studio, Lindsborg KS
These three were children of my Grandma Emma's cousin, Selma Theresa (nee Johnson) and Howard William Ward, Sr.

Beatrice, born in 1906, was the oldest, followed by Ruby two years later, and little Howard two years after that. All were born in Saline County, KS, just over the county line from Lindsborg, McPherson Co. One more sibling, Kenneth, would arrive in 1913.

The photo is prophetic in that Beatrice did became a teacher. She was possibly teaching in Hoisington when the top photo was made around 1930.

But what a fancy dress for a teacher!

Beatrice didn't marry until 1960, at age 53 or 54, to Oliver BURNS, a man almost 20 years her junior. She died in Lapeer or Wayne Co, Michigan in 1993. Oliver died in Detroit in 2000.

Ruby married Wendall Chase, and they farmed near Abilene, KS.

I remember visiting the Chases as a child, but if Ruby had photos of her sister on display, I don't recall. How many kids pay attention to photographs when there's a tire swing outside? But I do recall slices of the summer's first peaches swimming in thick, fresh cream. Heaven!


Marie Reed's Postcard Friendship Friday