Pauline Mae Neal and Friend


It appears that the September photo has pretty much foiled everyone including Lena Bell! I know that was a big surprise. Four people identified Pauline Mae Neal on the left but the young lady on the right remains a mystery. And the date of this photo seems to have eluded us also. Marilyn guessed late spring in 1923 which is as good a guess as any.

Jason said, "On the left, mamaw Pauline. On the right, maybe a friend of mamaw Pauline? Only a guess!"

Lena Bell wrote, "I had hoped I could remember who the other young lady is in the picture with mother, but just couldn't remember....Kitchen seems to come to The Monthly Photo mind...but not sure about that! Anyway, mother is the first one in the picture with the longer hair that looks like it is light brown. She really had an auburn color hair. Isn't she beautiful? And doesn't she look so much like Marilyn in this picture? I've seen this picure lots of times, but just can't remember who her friend is! I don't think it is a family member though. There is a picture somewhere with mother and Dalia Rogers, but this is not it!"

Marilyn took a research, analyze, and guess approach. This is what she came up with. "The young girl on the left, has to be Grandma Pauline. I'm guessing around 14 years old. This picture has to be taken in the early 20's, 1923 late spring. If you click on Pauline Neal's picture in the ROOTS page, you can see the exact same face looking back at you, only 25 or 30 years older. It's amazing. The other girl I don't believe could be Aunt Daisy since she was 4 1/2 years older than grandma. This girl is around the same age or maybe a couple of years younger. Could this be Aunt Bridget? (Whom I never knew even existed until 3 days ago.) Who ever it is, Grandma seems to be very close to, (lol, I guessed that since they have their arms around each other, that makes you pretty close, unless you have really long arms) best friends or next door neighbors."

Karen printed this picture and showed it to Mary Ellen who named Pauline but couldn't identify the young lady on the left. Karen wrote, "I have already printed out the last picture and had mom look at it!!! She couldn't tell me no more than the lady on the left is Grandma. I was hopin' to be this month's picture winner - didn't work out though." But you gave it a very good try!

Who is the lady on the right? Where was this taken? What was the year? I guess we'll never know!

-- James R. Love, 01 October 2001