Clara Kuck Through the Ages

 

Before all this came about, this was the sole picture I had of Clara Kuck, likely taken about mid life. Then when I received the photo album from the Good Samaritan, I suddenly had quite a few taken in the years between around about 1900 to around 1912 when Clara would have been between 17 to 29 years old. More than I had but it still left a lot of gaps. The box of loose photographs filled in all those gaps and I thought I would compose a pictorial of her through the ages for posterity.

On the back of the photo above is an inscription saying this was Clara at six months old.

Above is one with her as a young toddler on the left with older sister, also a toddler on the right. It wasn't dated but carried the inscription, "Sister Bertha and I".

Here she is at age 10 in 1893 evidently playing tea with younger brother Paul and older sister Bertha.

Above is her high school commencement photo taken in 1899.

Here she is a few years later in 1904 upon her graduation from Carleton College.

I found a partial picture of the one I had before I began this journey and it was dated 1908 or 1909 by Clara herself making her around 25 or 26 when it was taken. Not quite middle aged as I had previously thought.

According to the inscription this was taken in 1912 while she was in Berlin Germany and was about 29 years old.

This was taken in 1914, two years after her return from Germany when she did a brief teaching stint in Idaho.

This picture says it was taken in 1928 in San Jose California making her around 45 years old at the time.

Here is another taken in 1928 but I wanted to include it just because of the difference in dress.

This one is a bit special since according to the inscription, it was taken just after she got married at age 55 in 1939 to Herbert Hamilton Foot at her cousin Leta's house.

This one was was taken in 1948 when Clara would have been 65 and as they were heading to the train station where Herbert was off on a trip to Bahrein in the Persian Gulf. I'm sure there is a story in that trip but at the point of this writing, I don't know it.

This picture is undated but likely the oldest picture I have of Clara who is on the right. Judging from the patio furniture, I would date this photo sometime in the 1950's. 

Clara Elizabeth Kuck died in 1966 at age 83.