This wonderful photograph and the information about it
were contributed to the Ghotes Web site by Dr. Richard D. White, Jr., of
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dr. White's mother, Mahalinda Parks White, and
his grandmother, Mahalinda Kellam Parks, are both in the photo. See
other identifications below.
Our sincere thanks to Dr. White for sharing this photo!
Click on the thumbnail to see full size photo.
The picture was taken in 1925. It is the cast of a local minstrel
western
that gave several productions across the Shore. Only two of the cast
in the
picture are still alive: Ralph Kellam, the tuxedo-adorned young man at
top
left; and Mahalinda Parks White (my mother), the four-year toddler seated
just above and to the right of the piano.
Other identified cast members are: Mahalinda Kellam Parks (my grandmother
and
the wife of Sheriff Everett Parks of Onancock) who is seated third from the
left in the top row with the large black bow on her dress; Eddie Shultz,
wearing glasses and holding a mason jar of corn likker, kneeling next to
Mahalinda Parks (Eddie was a German POW during World War I and elected to
stay on the Shore and marry instead of returning to Germany); Bob Killmon,
dressed as a Chinaman dressed in a black robe and kneeling next to toddler
Mahalinda White; Agnes Parker, the blonde lady in the top row wearing black
and facing left; Margaret Littleston, the Indian squaw seated on the top of
the piano; and John Roach, the Indian seated between Margaret and toddler
Mahalinda (this picture was taken shortly before John Roach was arrested for
bootlegging and sent to prison by Sheriff Parks.)
|