To Kansas in 1941 (part 1)

Dorothy enters WyomingIn a recent post, I shared photos from two trips to Kansas in the mid-1950s that my grandparents Vernon Black and Dorothy (McMurry) Black made with their kids, Keith and Gary. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing some photos I just discovered of a much earlier trip back to see Vernon’s family, a trip taken in 1941.

This morning I was going through an old photo album that my grandmother Dorothy (McMurry) Black put together in the early 1940s. I had quickly skimmed through it a few years back and made a mental note that it was a photo album of their wedding and of their newborn son Keith. When I went through it today, page by page, I discovered that, sandwiched between the pages devoted to those two events, there were several other “chapters,” each documenting an adventure of the newlywed couple.

One of these adventures was their cross-country road trip back to Kansas in May, 1941. They had been married for about five months, and this may have been the first time that Dorothy got to meet Vernon’s family. It was certainly the first time she saw where he had grown up.

I wanted to get these pages up as soon as possible because, even though this trip took place almost 73 years ago, at least one of the people pictured in the album is still alive (my great-uncle George Black), and I’d like to let him see these photos as soon as possible.

For today’s post, I’ll simply give you a preview of the pages in this chapter of Dorothy’s photo album. In the second post of this series, I’ll document the people and places seen in each photo, and I’ll try to map out the route they took on their cross-country adventure. That said, I currently don’t recognize most of the people and places pictured, so if you recognize someone or a place in these photos, please do let me know by leaving a comment below.

(Note: the last two pages are probably not a part of this series, but since I wasn’t sure, I went ahead and included them.)

1941-05- Trip to Kansas 1 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 2 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 3 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 4 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 5 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 7 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 8 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 9 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 10 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 11 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 12 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 13 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 14 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 15 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 16 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 17 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 18 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 19 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 20 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 21 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 22 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 23 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 24 1941-05- Trip to Kansas 25

8 thoughts on “To Kansas in 1941 (part 1)

  1. My husband is Glenn McMurry, cousin to Gary and Keith Black.
    Glenn’s father, Frank Bailey McMurry, son of Frank Ross McMurry, son of Arthur W. McMurry, son of Luke Robinson McMurry.
    I have several old photos of the McMurry family I can share with you if you would like.

  2. Hello, My name is Whitney (Cole) Archer. Anelia Shearer Hayes was my great grandmother. Her daughter peggy was my grandmother. Her and my Gpa Arnold and my Great Uncle Gene are in several of these photos! been great to look at them. they obviously are named in the first set. and they are also in a later set where gene is shown dressed up sitting on the porch! i have never seen these photos. thank you for posting them

    • Hi Whitney,

      Thank you so much for your comment. I’ve got a few more photos you’d be interested in, and I’m happy to share them. I’d also like to add you to my family tree, as I don’t have you in my family tree file at the moment. Is your dad Larry Cole? He and I are second cousins but have never met. Feel free to respond via comment (just mark it if you don’t want it to be publicly posted) or you can wait until I send you a private email later this week or weekend. Can’t wait to learn how we’re related!

      Michael

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