Our Daily Sykes #494 – "How Martha Got George"

The focus is soft and the color askew but the wit of Horace Sykes caption is enjoyed.  “Here’s How Martha Got George.”  He penned it on the border of the slide.  His daughter Jeannette peeks at her father and he at her through the gate to their home with mother Elizabeth at the Puget Sound end of Bertona Lane in Magnolia.  They moved from Capitol Hill to their new Magnolia home in 1932.  Jeanette was then twenty-two and still in school – either the U.W. or perhaps by then Cornish.  This is many years later – most likely on one of her visits to her folks in the late 1940s.  Jeannette was a ballet dancer and distinguished by her formidable frame.  Some of her dancing was done at Cornish.  The Times description of her on her wedding day to Navy Lieutenant Henry Clay DeLong (of Bath Maine) reads, in part, “The bride who is a tall, stately blond, was given in marriage by her father . . . She carried a handkerchief made from the lace of her great-great grandmother’s wedding gown.”   The wedding was at St. Marks on August 16, 1935.  Earlier that year Jeannette was crowned Carnival Queen at Mt. Rainier, for the 4th annual Spring Ski Carnival at Paradise Valley.  It was also the site of Jeannette’s triumph in 1922 when the 12-year old beat her father to the top of Mt. Rainier, and became, the Times reported, “the youngest person ever to reach the summit.”  Three years more and the Times “added” that the teen Jeannette was doing radio skits with her father Horace on the subject of fire safety.  She “took the part of ‘Mrs. Smith,’ the woman with the house full of fire hazards.”  (Click to Enlarge)

One thought on “Our Daily Sykes #494 – "How Martha Got George"”

  1. Greetings from Delaware. In researching my west coast relatives, I came across your blog that included a nice article on Jeannette Sykes. I believe that her great grandfather was Henry M Sykes, of Salem Oregon, who is my great great grandfather. I haven’t so far located other Sykes’s and was wondering if there are other decendants of Henry out there.

    Thanks,
    John

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