My mother was a fashionista before they had the word fashionista. She was also a dedicated sew and sew. As a consequence more than half of the photos in our family album are documentation of the clothes she designed and sewed. I think this may be the dress she made for my father’s mother’s funeral in 1959 because it is black, but I am not sure. Another theory is that she made it for the trip to Cincinnati that RCA sent my father on. That week-or-two trip included wives. In any event, it looks a heck of a lot like Barbie’s “Solo in the Spotlight” even down to the fake flower by her left knee.

In this photo (taken by my father) she is leaning on the top of the Paul McCobb "captain's chair" (previously seen here) in front of three drawings she did. The far left is a portrait of three-year-old me. The center picture is a tree. And behind her shoulder is a portrait of my father. The bricks in the foreground are part of the free standing fireplace that was a central feature of this mid-century modern Levittown home.