I was visiting the Bonaventure cemetery in Savannah and found a couple of portraits of real people in among the dopey cemetery angels. Who were they?
Elsie Gumbel, daughter of renowned philanthropist Simon Gumbel, who emigrated from Germany in 1887; here 25 in 1909, she lived as an adult with two brothers in New Orleans, debilitated her whole life by a heart condition that killed her at 37. I’ve seen her death certificate. The sculptor used granite as she was a VERY freckly, redheaded, slightly zaftig woman of quiet determination. Her condition kills most in their first ten years of life. “Elsie Gumbel at 25, 1909, after unknown” 18 x 27″,
Gertrude Wheless Bliss at 14, 1944, after unknown 8 x 12″ She’s just on the edge of breaking out in tears again; she’s of marble, on her grandmother’s and later her mother’s grave. She really was 14 then. I’ve known well one woman with similar facial anatomy, and saw one on the metro in Vienna as well; it’s a type found in some parts of Austria into France, I think.
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