This is Florence McClain. It may have been her high school graduation portrait, though I don’t know that for certain. The portrait was taken about the time she graduated, anyway.
Someone seems to have splashed coffee (or something) on this photo at some point, unfortunately. Despite that, it is a very nice portrait.
The above photo came in a frame that looks like this:
That will become significant momentarily.
If you have been hanging around this blog for a while now, you may remember the photos of the inside of the house in Richmond, California that was the residence of five of the Wright siblings in 1929 and 1930.
I won’t re-post those photos here. See the above post if you wish to refresh your memory. One of those photos showed a room with a fireplace and mantle. Here is a close-up of a section of the mantle above the fireplace, between the radio speaker and the shotgun:
In this image, the photo there on the mantle is not so clear that you would recognize the person in it just from this image. But you can see it clearly enough to be pretty certain it is the above photo. Besides the photo being in the same shape frame as above, you can see that the person in the photo has the same sort of flowery thing on the left shoulder, and the hairstyle generally matches.
The question then is, why is there a portrait of Florence on the mantle in the house in Richmond?
There were two in particular among the Wright siblings with whom Florence was friends. One was Anna. This photo of Florence and Anna shows their friendship clearly. The other was Lloyd. Florence eventually married him, of course.
Did the portrait of Florence on the mantle belong to Anna or Lloyd? It could be either.
Both Lloyd’s and Florence’s written recollections are in general agreement that although they had known each other since 1926, their relationship did not become serious until after Lloyd returned from California and Florence graduated from nursing school and moved back to Albany (that is, sometime in the latter half of 1931). Based on that, one wouldn’t necessarily expect Lloyd to be displaying a portrait of Florence in his home in California in 1930.
On the other hand, there may have been a bit more to Lloyd and Florence’s relationship in 1929 than their later recollections would suggest. At some point Mom (Florence) told me she worried when Dad moved to California that he would never return. This suggests they were more than just casual friends—or at least that Mom wanted them to be more than that.
So it is impossible to say now who the portrait on the mantle in Richmond belonged to. But the romantic in me wants to believe it was Dad’s. :–)
I agree! I think it would be a little weird if it were Aunt Ann’s. I agree they were friends but to have Mom’s photo displayed and no other doesn’t seem likely to me! Of course I too like the romantic idea that the relationship was just starting to bloom even then!
Not disagreeing with your point at all, but just to clarify one thing, there were other pictures on the mantle besides Mom’s. I just focused on that one to establish that it was, in fact, a photo of Mom. I see at least two other photos on the mantle. They aren’t clear enough that I can tell who the subjects of those photos are (if they were even people I would recognize). I don’t know that I would even have recognized Mom if I hadn’t had the actual photo to compare with.
I am on the side of the romantics! I think Daddy brought it along and put it on the mantle. Something was already going on inside of him: that’s my theory! I just love all this course in history; Thank you, Lloyd!!!
Love the window into this part of Mom and Dad’s history. I, too, tend to think that the picture of Mom on the Mantle was given to Dad by Mom in hopes that HE would not forget her and return to Oregon to continue their “friendship”!! Thanks, Lloyd, for letting us see the possible “twinkle” beginning in Dad’s eyes for Mom. I think at that time Dad also really liked Mom’s father and the spiritual input he had into Dad’s life!! Thanks, guys, this is a great discussion!!