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Circa 1939. "Post Office in Convent, Louisiana." 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Agnes, according to some of the other posts, would be 62 years old in this picture. Somehow, she looks quite a bit older than that. May be a combination of a hard life, and no "beauty shop" in Convent?
In the 1910 census, Charles Subra, husband of Agnes, is the postmaster of the Convent PO.
Many a fine springtime hour has been spent examining blue sky and puffy white clouds from a soft bed of clover like we see here in the front yard.
According to the USPS Postmaster Finder page this would be Mrs. Agnes B. Subra. She was appointed acting Postmaster on July 1, 1938 Postmaster on Sept 15, 1938 and remained so until June 30, 1947. Based on the 1930 census she was born in 1877 in Louisiana and was the Assistant Postmaster to her husband Charles, also born in 1877 in Louisiana.
I never heard that it was illegal to photograph a post office, but I did learn from The Andy Griffith Show that it is illegal to photograph an FBI agent.
All my life I've been taught that it's illegal to photograph a Post Office building. I guess it was to keep the Soviets from learning our efficient ways. But the law is old. I wonder if it was like that back then, though I doubt we were worried about Hitler knowing how our Post Office worked. Unfortunately, his country was quite efficient in its own right.
I can't stop from finding details that I love here. The hitching rail, the 2x14 boards for a sidewalk, functional shutters on the windows, the wind vane, the fancy porch roof and cupola matched with the worn corrugated tin roof, the crooked Mona Lisa smile on the post office lady, with her arms crossed and toes pointed inward as if she was embarrassed to be dragged out for the photo. I can even imagine a garden planted on one side and laying hens pecking the ground on the other. Mayberry, RFD.
[News flash: It's never been "illegal to photograph a post office." At least not in the U.S. of A. Who in the world "taught" you that? - Dave]
My brother-in-law's aunt was the Postmaster of the small upstate New York town she lived in in the 1940s. She was adamant that there was no such position as "postmistress."
They wanted to put U.S. on the building, so there's a "U" on one side and way, way over on the other side of the roof is an "S"! Wonderful. I can taste the gumbo now! Yessir! And atop the building is a wonderfully whimsical cupola. She's proud of her Post Office and happy to have her picture taken.
Do you think the postmistress of the Convent post office was a nun?
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