Carnival of Genealogy 78 - Ride 'Em Cowboy

Or cowgirl. The not too sure cowgirl in this picture is my aunt Elizabeth Reed about 5 or 6 years old, which would put this picture about 1915 or 1916. I do not know whether this photo was taken in Chicago, where her family lived at the time, or in Indiana, which was the home ground for the Reed family.




Elizabeth Reed was born in 1910 and died in 1967. She was my favorite aunt. She and her mother, my grandma Mary LeSourd Reed, lived around the corner from us in the 1950s, my mother having bought a house in the neighborhood to be close to them. My aunt Elizabeth helped raise me. She taught me how to drive. She had connections that helped me get into college at Florida State University.

A public health nurse, she served as Director of Health Information at what was at the time known as the State Board of Health in Florida. It is now the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. And she had a store of humorous monologues that entertained many a civic meeting in northeast Florida.