Uncle Lee Wright married his long-time girlfriend Marie Gleason on August 6, 1943 in Albany. He was a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers at the time, stationed in North Carolina. They had met while Lee was attending Oregon State College, at an ice cream social at Jefferson Christian Church. Their relationship continued through the remainder of his college years, and then in a long-distance fashion as he worked for Westinghouse on the east coast and in Utah, and further as he was called up to active duty in the Army and ended up in North Carolina. It was from North Carolina that Lee drove across the country to marry Marie.

I’m guessing the above photo was taken sometime while Lee was in the Albany area to get married—either before or after the wedding. It is a great photo of all three of them (Lee, Marie and Anna).

This photo is from the wedding itself, of course. I can’t identify any of the bridesmaids. The configuration of people is interesting, and I’m not quite sure how to interpret it. Are the couple to the left of the groom the best man and maid of honor? If so, is that Lee’s brother Earl in that spot? I can’t quite be sure. Edited to add: See comment below from Earl, confirming that the couple were the best man and maid of honor. The best man was Harold Wright, Lee’s brother. The maid of honor was Marie’s sister, Helen Gleason. The unusual configuration with the best man and maid of honor separated as a couple from the other groomsmen and bridesmaids is possibly explained by the fact that Harold and Helen were dating at the time.

The groom and bride are easy enough to spot. The three groomsmen on the right are Lee’s brothers Ed, Irvine and Lloyd.

The flower girl on the left is Kathryn Wright. She was five years old. I don’t know who the other flower girl is. Edited to add: The flower girl on the right is Joanne Wright, also a niece of the groom (daughter of Ed and Helen Wright).

Funny story about Kathryn: She told me that she was instructed to drop flower petals as she came down the aisle. (I presume the instructions were the same for both flower girls.) And she finally did drop said petals because that’s what she’d been told to do. But it caused a great deal of turmoil in her five-year-old mind. She was worried about who was going to clean up the mess!

The photo below may not have any direct tie to the wedding. It was certainly taken in the general time-frame of the wedding, since Uncle Lee was still a captain when the portrait was taken.

Sadly this portrait has faded in blotches, which is a bit distracting. But even that can’t overshadow Uncle Lee’s warm smile.

As mentioned in a recent post, after the wedding Aunt Marie returned with Uncle Lee to North Carolina and they had that bit of time together as a married couple. But soon Uncle Lee was sent overseas, and at that point Aunt Marie returned to Albany to stay with family and await his return (but with the realization that he might never return). It was three years before they were finally reunited.