Memoir entry: move to Savannah 1926; Mrs. Walker's illness; photograph of Mary Ann at Black Mountain
Book 2, Page 119 ·1926–1930
Transcription
Handwritten memoir entry at top of page, in blue ink:
In 1926 Puck was made general superintendent of the northern division of the A. C. L. R. R. and we moved to Savannah. We rented a very large — old house on Henry St. Dee and Mary Anne were in graded school. and Pickens in High school.
Mrs. Walker became ill that winter, + the Drs. in Baltimore thought coming to a milder climate might help her. She and Anna came to us — before X’mas — and stayed until Spring — She never walked (Mrs. W.) never walked again.
[Editorial note: “She and Anna” — Anna is Puck’s sister, Anna Strait Walker Modisette. “Mrs. Walker / Mrs. W.” is Puck’s mother, Emma Dee Pickens Walker. The parenthetical “(Mrs. W.)” is the writer’s mid-sentence clarification that the woman who never walked again is her mother-in-law.]
A sepia photograph mounted below, printed in landscape orientation: a young girl in a light dress leans back on her hands against a low stuccoed garden wall; tree branches arch overhead and the front of a stuccoed building is visible at the right. Caption beneath, in blue ink:
MARY ANN. Taken in Black Mt. during the years we lived in Savannah Ga.
AI Notes
A loose-leaf lined-paper album page with a handwritten memoir entry in blue ink at the top and a sepia photograph mounted at the lower half. The text records Puck’s 1926 promotion, the family’s move to Savannah, the children’s schooling, and the winter visit of his mother Mrs. Walker (in poor health) and Anna (Puck’s sister Anna Strait Walker Modisette). The rented house is on Henry St.; the elder daughter’s name is ‘Dee’ (the family nickname for Emma Dee Walker); in the closing ‘never walked’ sentence the writer interrupts herself with the parenthetical ‘(Mrs. W.)’ to clarify she means Mrs. Walker (her mother-in-law). The photograph — printed sideways on the page — shows a girl leaning back on her hands against a low stuccoed garden wall, with a tree and a glimpse of a building beyond.