Ladies’ Auxiliary

 

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I love a group photo, so when I found this in an antique shop I knew it had to come home with me. I located Mrs. Mary L. (Kohr) Walters who, according to the address label affixed to the bottom, lived at 2327 Fox Avenue in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Mary’s mother, Derinda Kohr, is on the far right in the second row.

Mary lived her entire life on Fox Avenue, the majority of the time as a single woman with her parents.  She married shortly before her mother’s death in 1944.  Mary is buried beside her husband, Ferd Walters, in Covington Memorial Gardens.

I’m able to date this image to 1912/1913 based on the sitter third from the left in the top row, Mrs. Stella (Harter) Conine.  Stella wed Carl Conine on October 29, 1912, and died on December 7, 1913, just days after giving birth to her daughter, Helen.

I believe this group of women were members of the Section 3 Ladies’ Auxiliary of the West Creighton Avenue Church of Christ in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I came across various articles about the group’s meetings that mentioned multiple sitters, including Mrs. Lawrence (Bessie) Forst, Mrs. Nicholas (Derinda) Kohr, Mrs. Henry (Josephine) Ehle, and Mrs. Kiser.

Unfortunately, without first names, I was unable to identify many of the ladies.  For those I was able to pin down I created a Find a Grave album.  Please know that these identifications were done to the best of my ability using Fort Wayne city directories and census records to match women that fit the age and married names of those pictured.