Samuel 'Deal' Barkley, the chaperone in the article to the right, was the founder of The Daily Breeze. He attended U.C. Berkeley in the 1890s. His son, Deal, jr. would later also attend U.C. Berkeley but apparently dropped out to take up work in the oil fields of El Segundo. In this article, little Deal, who 'hosted' the picnic outing with his older sister Adelaide, is about five years old.
Thelma would have been about 11.
And a little further down the column, we see that Thelma's mother, Reita, was hosting a little soiree of her own.
WHAT/WHO WE'RE RESEARCHING RIGHT NOW:
-- The yacht, 'Luella'
-- Thelma's schoolmates including, among others, Adelaide Barkley, Cora Spencer, Colise Maher, Ethel and Hazel Steele, Leda Bessett and Jean and Hazel Kindig
-- The Redondo School
-- Mr. T.M. Daley, the train conductor to whom Reita left her 'purse'
-- Mary 'Belle Henry' Barnes of Wauconga, WA and San Luis Obispo, CA
-- The wicked occurence at the Spencer Hotel in downtown L.A.
-- The Donaldson family connection in Dunsmuir, CA
-- Mrs. G.C. Schuler of Dunsmuir with whom Reita left her personal effects
-- The mysterious 'little blue bows'
-- The missing short stories of Reita L. Barnes. Where were they published? Perhaps in the Daily Breeze or some national magazine? And under what
nom de plume did she author her stories?
-- The missing trunk
-- Why did Reita have to escape a small town near the Cali-Oregon border and travel more than 700 miles to Los Angeles with little Thelma?
UPDATE! We received an email and phone call in February 2018
from an antique photograph collector in Alabama.
He believes he has found a picture of THELMA!
