Album page: Theodore Stoney FitzSimons family — six photographs, poem, and obituary

A scrapbook page given over to the Theodore Stoney FitzSimons family. Photographs are captioned in pencil and blue ink in the compiler’s hand.

Upper left — cabinet portrait of a young man with dark hair and small moustache, three-quarter view in dark coat:

Theodore Stoney Fitz Simons

Upper centre — a small biographical card glued at centre top, written in pencil:

Theodore Stoney Fitz Simons B. Jan 4th 1858    D. March 18th 1944 — M — Sabina McCready B.     D.

John McCready — B. Feb 4th – D. July May                    1890 – 1954 Louisa De Bernia — B. March 6th 1891 Theodore Lynch — B. 1893 (1892?)                    D. Jan 31st 1956

Upper right — Leidloff’s Studio cabinet portrait of a young woman in dark dress with high lace collar, three-quarter view, hair piled up:

Sabina McCready wife of Theodore Stoney Fitz-Simons

[Cabinet card maker’s mark: “Leidloff’s Studio, 248 & 251 King St., Charleston, S.C.”]

Upper right margin — a hand-written poem on clipped cream paper, glued at the top corner:

Last Voyage

My boat is chafing at my long delay      Yet I must leave too soon This white-walled city and bluewinged bay      pal-mettos and the moon

Keep me, Oh pilot — from my starry tho[s]e [illegible]      Guide with thy radiant light My darkening sail — still sinking into night      To reach a land unknown,

     Theodore L. FitzSimons

[Attribution at lower right: Theodore L. FitzSimons — i.e. Theodore Lynch FitzSimons the SON (the artist & poet whose obituary appears below), not Theodore Stoney FitzSimons the father.]

Centre — small newspaper clipping pasted between the bio card and the snapshot:

Mr. Theodore Lynch FitzSimons, the young artist, is still a lad in college but so great is the promise he shows in art and equally in the line of literature, that in knowing what he has already attained, one can but look proudly to his future accomplishments when maturity has ripened his rare gifts.

Centre — small outdoor snapshot pasted at centre:

A man in light-coloured suit and broad-brimmed hat standing on grass with a small white dog at his feet.

T. S. F. S. “Uncle Tote”

Lower left — large studio portrait of a man in U.S. Navy officer’s dress uniform with peaked cap:

John McCready Fitz-Simons World War I.

B. Ja. 4th 1890 – D. July May 1954

[The bio card above writes the birth month as “Feb” while the photo caption writes “Ja.” (Jan.) — a compiler inconsistency. The death month is “July” struck through with “May” written above on both inscriptions.]

Lower centre — large portrait of a young woman in a light blouse, hair bobbed, looking to her right:

Louisa De Bernia Fitz-Simons B. March 6 – 1891 D. July 1967

Lower right — small oval cabinet portrait of a man in dark coat and high collar:

Theodore Lynch Fitz-Simons B. 1893 (1892?) D. Feb 2nd 1956            Jan 31st

Lower right — newspaper obituary clipping (column of 1956 newsprint):

T. M. Fitzsimmons, Charleston Native, Dies In Columbia

COLUMBIA, Feb. 1 (Special) — Theodore McCrady Fitzsimmons, 64, native of Charleston, died today at a hospital here. Graveside funeral services will take place at noon tomorrow in St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Churchyard in Charleston, Connelley’s directing.

Mr. Fitzsimmons was a son of Theodore Stoney Fitzsimmons and Mrs. Sabina Lynch McCrady Fitzsimmons of Charleston. He attended the College of Charleston and was a Navy veteran of World War I.

He was associated with several publishing companies in New York for a number of years and had a book of poems published during that time. Some of his poems appeared in The News and Courier. He also worked with a stained glass manufacturing company.

After living in California for a number of years he returned to South Carolina about five years ago.

Surviving is a sister, Miss Louisa deB. Fitzsimmons of Richmond, Va., and a number of cousins in Charleston and Columbia.

Lower right — small funeral notice clipped beneath the obituary:

FITZSIMONS — Departed this life on the evening of Jan. 31, 1956, at the Veterans’ Hospital, Columbia, S. C., Theodore Lynch Fitzsimmons, son of Theodore Stoney and Sabina Lynch McCrady Fitzsimons, in his sixty-fourth year. Relatives and friends are invited to attend his funeral services at the grave in St. Philip’s Churchyard at 12 o’clock noon today, Feb. 2, 1956.

[The two clippings together confirm ‘T. M. Fitzsimmons’ in the headline and ‘Theodore McCrady Fitzsimmons’ in the body are the same person as ‘Theodore Lynch Fitzsimmons’ in the family-bible attribution and the smaller funeral notice — i.e. the headline initials ‘T. M.’ are a newspaper misattribution; the deceased is unambiguously Theodore Lynch FitzSimons (b. 1893, d. Jan 31 1956), son of Theodore Stoney and Sabina Lynch McCrady FitzSimons.]

Lower right corner — small photograph of a young woman seated on porch steps under wisteria, captioned in pencil beneath:

Louisa F.S.