Friday's Faces from the Past: John Pape and Daughter-In-Law, ABT 1934

This picture comes from the collection of my second cousin Bill - it belonged to his grandmother, Martha Pape Bleidt (1890-1981), who was my great aunt.  The photograph is of my great-grandfather, John Pape (1851-1945) and his daughter-in-law, my paternal grandmother, Elizabeth "Betty" Florence Massmann (Mrs. Paul Robert) Pape (1902-2000).  The photo was taken in Des Moines, Iowa, where John's oldest daughter, my great aunt Clara Pape (1889-1975) , lived from 1933 to at least 1946, and where second daughter Rhea Maria Pape (1892-1977) lived starting about 1944.  Rhea's daughter Patricia "Pat" Pape Hunter Parks (1923-1967), John's first grandchild, also lived in Des Moines, beginning in 1943 (with Clara).

It's not clear when this photo was taken.  A guess is 1934, because the collection includes another photo of John with a June 15, 1934, date, inscribed "Fur Clara von Pa" (German for "For Clara from Pa").  John, Betty, and Paul may have gone to visit Clara in Des Moines, and Paul may have taken the photo and later sent it to Clara.  Martha ended up with many of the belongings of her single or widowed siblings, as she outlived them all, and many of them shared Uncle Lee Pape's home in Wilmette near the end of their lives.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.