1976 Pine Bluff Debutante Ball photos

These are some photos I took when Trip Martin and I went to the Debutante Ball at Pine Bluff Country Club on December 29, 1976.  We were supposed to be floor marshals and escort young women down to the front, but we got there too late. Other floor marshals handled the job, so we didn't get in trouble for missing out on our assigned duty. We hung around, dressed in our tuxedos, and enjoyed the party.

George Spencer, Steve Lloyd, Mark Davis, Louis Dunklin.

Don't know who these people are.

????, Marti Bellingrath, Trip.  I should know that lady's name...

Richard Freeman and Cathy Ayres.

One of the Bodie "girls", and Donald "Bugs" Simmons (with long hair).

Vickie Wineland, one of the 19 debutantes, and Trip. The other debs were Carol Tracy, Michelle Skrabanek, Janet Lee Scallion, Mary Ellen Russell, Melissa Dare Perdue, Helene Lauren Pascale, Dora Jane Oudin, Ann Oudin, Jan Nelson, Andrea Makris, Jane Ann Lloyd, Elizabeth Mann Kennedy, Karen Ann Johnson, Claire Ann Holmes, Paula Rae Henry, Fairfax Triplett Fullerton, Elizabeth Ann Dalheim, and Elizabeth Ann Case.

Trip triumphant but blurred.

 Joe (?) Cook, Alfred Warriner, and somebody whose name I should know.

 Laurie Pascale, whose older sister Helene was a debutante.

And the larger than life characters: Jewel Bain, "FuFa" Triplett Fullerton and son Baker Fullerton, whose sister Fairfax Fullerton was a debutante not only here but also at a New York City debutante ball held on January 1st at the Plaza Hotel.  Sidelong glance from the background is being cast by Joel Chandler.  Another New York connection is that Marti Bellingrath was living in New York City at this time, and Dad and I had brunch at the Russian Tea Room with her on a Sunday in October when we were on our way to Rome.

 Finally, on the same roll of film, Zeke (Steven's dog) and Ringo (Trulock Family dog) in kitchen at 4006 Cherry Street.

During the same week as this white debutante ball, there was also a black debutante ball held at what was then called Collegiate Plaza but later was called PJ's. Twenty young women were introduced to society at that event.

Pat Calkins (20 January 1954 - 8 December 2016)

 Pat and me, taken by Deborah Strauss in Austin in the spring of 1998.

This is a photo I took of Marcia Ball and Pat at La Zona Rosa, the bar and restaurant in Austin, in 1991 approximately.  See my Ink on His Face blog for the ghost-in-the-Saenger-theater story Pat told me, and click here to see some photos I took when I visited Pat in Lahaina, Maui in August 2008.

This is from the Dazed and Confused era, mid-1970s. Marc Cronin, Pat, Nancy Barnes Alvis, Mike Alvis, all now deceased, with alcohol and other drugs being a major factor in their early deaths.

Info from Pat's niece, Brooke:

Posting an update on my Uncle Pat here - it seems like the most efficient way due to everyone being spread around the place. Please share as you see fit. My mother, Kay Calkins, was Pat's youngest sister. I take care of my grandfather's affairs, who is Pat's father and next of kin. I am in contact with authorities, working through details and arrangements. I will post those here as soon as we have them nailed down.

I received confirmation today that Pat passed away from a heart attack. He had been in the hospital earlier this week with heart issues, but was discharged Wed afternoon or Thu morning. He had cell phone activity Thu morning, but not afterwards. Pat was found by the Home Health nurse that came to check on him Friday morning. The coroner estimates that he passed away Thu afternoon or evening, so Dec 8th. His heart attack happened in an area that they call "widow maker" - when a patient has this type of heart attack in the hospital, they only have a 20% chance of survival. The coroner described it as "turning off the light switch", it's immediate. It appears that Uncle Pat was standing in his living room, looking out the window to the parking lot, and simply fell backwards. There were no signs of distress or struggle, no reaching for a phone, etc. I share this only because it brings me comfort - knowing it was quick and that there would have been nothing that could have been done had someone been there. This is the same heart attack that my grandmother, Pat's mother, had at age 63 when she passed away quietly in our living room. Pat would have been 63 in January.

If anyone has any helpful information, please feel free to share it with me. I also would love any pictures that you may have.

Lastly, please pray for my grandfather, Charlie Calkins Jr. - or send good vibes, we appreciate it all. He will turn 91 this month, and this will be his third child to bury, while also losing his wife and one grandson (my brother). He is holding up well, considering - but this is all more than one person should have to bear.

We thank everyone for their kind words and support - and a special thank you to those who have helped me gather information today. Pat's stepdaughter AJ and I were talking today about this feeling like a wild goose chase, and I told her that I would expect nothing less from my crazy Uncle Pat. He was eccentric and interesting, marched to the beat of his own drummer - I will cherish the good times - like when he came out of the bushes on his unicycle to scare the bejesus out of me. Rest In Love Uncle Pat 

Rome, October 1976

Family vacation photo August 1966

Fifty years ago we made one last vacation trip to Pensacola Beach as a family, this time without meeting the Murphree family there as we had in the past.  Stopped at Mobile to tour USS Alabama, and this was the only complete family photo to be made on the entire trip.  Dad is not in it since he took the photo, and wasn't inclined at the time to get other people to take a photo with him in it also.

  This was a year after Mother's father, Archie Miller, died. Her mother, Elner King Miller, went with us on this vacation.

Hotel Pines expedition 23 July 2016

Frances Trulock at 1956 Montreat conference

This appears to be summer, but may have been September, 1956.  Montreat Conference Center, North Carolina. Presbyterian women in the B.W.W., Board of Women's Work.  My paternal grandmother Frances Andrews Trulock is seated second from left.  I tried to decipher her handwriting, which was never an easy thing to do, but in this case was complicated by the age of the ink on back of the photo. I think she later had her front teeth capped.  She was 55 years old at this time (turned 56 on December 21, 1956).  Did most middle-aged people back then look this much older than people of the same age look today? 

Bellwood Cemetery photos

 Ruben Dollarhide, photo taken 23 June 2016.

 Walter N. Trulock III, photo taken 17 February 2015.

 Bitsy Mullins, photo taken 2 Sept. 2015.

 Jessie beside freshly dug grave, 21 July 2015.

Gift left in Jewish section of cemetery, 9 August 2015. The visible headstones belong to (left to right) Samuel Katzenstein, Blanche B. Katzenstein, Josephine B. Kornfeld, and Joseph Kornfeld.  The initial "B" stands for Bluthenthal.  Samuel Bluthenthal (1833-1917) is the resting-in-peace patriarch of this extended family plot, which has several Maier and Baum graves in it as well. Some were born in Europe and died in Pine Bluff. The Kornfelds were born in Pine Bluff and died (in the 1950s) in New York.

Father's Day 30 years ago

Father's Day 1986: Dad and me on the patio behind the condo he and Mary Ann lived in, on Andover Drive in Little Rock. Photo probably taken by Mary Ann.

20 years ago: England in May

Horses somewhere between London and Cambridge, closer to Cambridge than to London.

Regent's Park, London. The pigeons got to share a turkey sandwich with us, but one pigeon unexpectedly flipped a piece of turkey onto his or her back. The others were left to ponder the situation:  "Just how peckish are we feeling at the moment?"

Einstein disguised not as Robin Hood (re: Desolation Row by Bob Dylan) but as somebody's pissed off grandmother with a mustache. This is a Madame Tussaud wax figure in the lobby of the London Planetarium,  which is now part of Madame Tussaud's and no longer a planetarium.  The show we saw there in May of 1996 was as underwhelming as this likeness of Einstein. We can hope they've got a better wax figure of Albert now.

Spring 1966 photos

Easter of course. Jeff missing.

Hunter and hound (Arch and Nosey).