Child's letter to 'Maryann' signed 'Dana'

A single sheet of pale green ruled paper, written in pencil in a child’s printed (mostly upper- and lower-case mixed) hand. Addressed to ‘Maryann’ (Mary Ann Walker McEwan, daughter of Amy FitzSimons and James Pickens Walker Sr.) and signed ‘Dana.’ The body asks ‘how is Party’ — read as ‘Patty’ or ‘Party’ (the t’s are not crossed; the writer’s phonetic spelling is inconsistent throughout, e.g. ‘hop’ for ‘hope,’ ‘will’ for ‘well,’ ‘to’ for ‘too’), most plausibly the name of a pet, a younger sibling, or a friend. A yellowish stain sits at the left edge mid-page. The hand and content (a child writing about summer plans and wishing the recipient ‘feels better’) place the note in the 1960s–1970s when Mary Ann’s grandchildren and great-nieces/nephews would have been of letter-writing age.

The reading ‘Party’ is uncertain — the writer does not cross the t’s, so the word may equally be ‘Patty.’ Given the kid-phonetic spelling throughout (‘hop’/hope, ‘will’/well, ‘to’/too), ‘Patty’ (a pet or child) is the most plausible reading. ‘will how is Party’ reads as ‘well, how is Party/Patty.’