ADOLESCENCE

The portrait shows six of the seven girls that comprised Gladys’ “ gang” all through high school; the seventh, Nel Stafford, had moved away before it was made. Gladys thought they were all about eighteen when it was taken. The other photos from this period suggest that the middy blouse was her favorite outfit. Vera Wallace, who never married, became part owner of the Doubleday Coal Co. in Kansas City, Missouri; she came for a visit whenever Gladys returned to the area. They also met elsewhere, as evidenced by this photo taken on September 16, 1916 at Colorado’s Royal Gorge. Kate Thurman’s father owned a bakery, and Gladys told me on several occasions: “She always smelled like bread.” After high school Kate attended the normal school in Pittsburg, Kansas. Later, while part of a Chautauqua program in Cisco, Texas, she met and subsequently married George Fee, whose father’s bank became famous as the site of the Santa Claus robbery. (Yes, you infer correctly at what season it happened and how the thief was dressed.) In addition to raising two children, Kate ran a gift shop in Cisco, from which Gladys acquired several interesting objects. Ruth Bainum, Grace Jones, and Maurine Lloyd were the other “gang” members. Blanche Burns and George Cassel were not, but since his father owned both a lumber company and an automobile, George was invited along whenever transportation was needed, on condition he bring both Blanche and the car. A high-spirited boy, he once drove his car up the high school steps, but later calmed down sufficiently to marry Blanche and settle in Sterling, Colorado, where he owned the bank. The two boys pictured with Gladys and her sister Inez are identified only as Harold and David.