Photograph: The Corbell home, Maryview Hospital, Portsmouth, Va., 1946; with 1957 envelope to Mrs. Walker at Hendersonville
Book 2, Page 208 ·1946-1957
Transcription
Upper photograph — a black-and-white snapshot, mounted on a deckle-edged white card, of a small girl in a pale dress and white shoes/socks standing on a sunny lawn in front of a low one-story white frame house with a brick chimney at the right. Captioned in blue ink below:
The Corbell home in Mary View Hospital Portsmouth Va. November 23rd 1946.
[The phrasing “home in Mary View Hospital” is as written; the Corbells were likely living in housing associated with Maryview Hospital, where Robert Lawrence Corbell Jr. (husband of Dee Walker, the compiler’s middle daughter) may have been on staff or training in the immediate postwar period. Maryview Hospital had opened in March 1945 on High Street in Portsmouth, originally named Glensheallah Hospital, and was renamed Maryview shortly thereafter; it is today Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center.]
Lower envelope — a small pale envelope. Circular postmark at upper left:
PORTSMOUTH AUG 14 3 30 PM 1957 VA.
Slogan cancellation to the right of the postmark, in three lines:
1607 JAMESTOWN BIRTHPLACE OF THE 350TH ANNIVERSARY
A purple 3-cent Wild Turkey stamp (1956 Wildlife Conservation issue) is affixed at the upper right. Addressed in blue fountain-pen ink:
Mrs. James Pickens Walker Route 2, Box 390 Hendersonville, N. C.
AI Notes
An album page with a black-and-white snapshot mounted on a deckle-edged white card showing a small girl (probably four or five years old) in a pale short-sleeved dress and white socks/shoes standing on a sunny lawn in front of a low one-story white frame house with dark roof and a brick exterior chimney to the right of frame. Captioned in blue ink. The lower half of the page is a small pale mailing envelope addressed in blue fountain-pen ink to Mrs. James Pickens Walker (the compiler) at Hendersonville, N.C., with a Portsmouth, Va. postmark dated AUG 14, 1957, 3:30 PM. The cancellation slogan reads ‘1607 JAMESTOWN / BIRTHPLACE OF THE / 350TH ANNIVERSARY’ (commemorating the 1957 Jamestown 350th Anniversary celebration). Postage is a 3-cent purple Wild Turkey stamp from the 1956 Wildlife Conservation issue. (1) the family name in the photo caption is Corbell — this is Dee Walker’s family (Dee = Emma Dee Walker, b. 18 Oct 1915, who married Robert Lawrence Corbell Jr.); (2) the rural route number on the envelope is Box 390; (3) the hospital is Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth, Va. (opened March 1945 on High Street as Glensheallah Hospital, renamed Maryview by 1946; later Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center). The phrasing ‘home in Maryview Hospital’ is as written; likely the Corbell family was occupying hospital staff housing (Robert Lawrence Corbell Jr. may have been on staff or training there). The child is probably a Corbell grandchild — Robert Lawrence Corbell III (b. Jan 1940) would have been 6 yrs old in Nov 1946 (the photo shows a younger child, so perhaps a niece or one of Dee’s other children at this date).
The postmark slogan commemorates the 1957 Jamestown 350th Anniversary (the 1607 founding of Jamestown). By 1957 Amy Walker had moved from Savannah to Hendersonville, N.C., where her rural-route address was Route 2, Box 390.