My Uncle Raymond sent this to me last week to post on Whippleworld. My apologies for not getting it posted sooner, but I have a new computer at work, and it’s had some bugs all week that seem to now have finally been exorcised. I guess we’ll know if this shows up on Whippleworld! Anyway, Uncle Ray says that the photo is dated 1923. That’s Sabra in front, of course, and behind her are (L to R) Virginia, Mary and Mabel. I had originally planned to post this next to the group photo with the “zoftig” girl, in an effort to help identify some of those folks.

In doing the math, Sabra was 50 in 1923, and my grandmother Virginia 14. I’ll let someone else start any comparisons between the photos, if ya’ll are interested. For now, I’ll just say that in a previous comment of mine concerning the zoftig girl photo, I was apparently half right: this photo proves that Sabra did indeed maintain her youthful appearance into middle age, at least into her 50′s! Maybe I’m just a little biased, but aren’t the Whipple women all really good looking?

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Well, not exactly, but I’ll bet that most of you haven’t seen this before! Here for your perusal is a portrait of my grandmother, Virginia Sabra Whipple, drawn by Raymond Oatman Whipple. It appears to be in charcoal, or maybe pencil, and was obviously drawn in 1929. The drawing is framed, under glass, and has been hanging in my parent’s house for as long as I can remember. Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I think I managed to get a couple of decent shots despite the reflection from the glass. I included a close-up of the “Whipple” signature and personal note signed “ROW”.

By my calculation, my grandmother would have been 19-20, and Raymond would have been about 22 when he drew this portrait in 1929. In reading the previously posted 1961 article from the SA Light on Ray Whipple, it says that he graduated from high school in 1925, contracted polio, and then it took “about 4 years to regain the use of his right hand to where he could guide a pencil”. I’m just speculating, but this portrait of my grandmother drawn in 1929 must have been among his first successful attempts to “guide that pencil”!
Two things have always struck me about this portrait. First, my Grandmother’s hands don’t look quite right. Well, now I think I know why. Raymond was working very hard to control his hand while drawing, and in this portrait he’s just now really getting the hang of it, but it’s not quite there yet. Secondly, my grandmother was a strikingly beautiful young woman. It’s easy to see why my grandfather Virgil was interested!

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Since Uncle Raymond was kind enough to provide the photo of Henry in uniform, taken in 1917, I thought I’d repost it along with his basic military record. These records ae accessible at the Texas Military Museum at Camp Mabry, in Austin. They are the repository of all the existing personnel records from the U.S. Army’s 36th Division. So, here for your perusal is record #ASN1,487,081:

Name: Whipple, Henry Manning
Age: 21 yrs. 3 mos.
Residence: San Marcos, Hays County, Texas
Enlisted: Austin, Texas 30 July 1917
Co.I, 1st Inf Tex NG Camp Bowie, Tex to 15 Oct 1917
Co.B 141st Inf after (in federal service)
Private; Sergeant on 5 Aug 1917
Engagements: Suippes-Champagne, Blanc Mont, or
Meuse-Argonne Campaign
Overseas: 26 July 1918. Left Camp Bowie 8 July, arrived
by train Camp Mills, New York by 22 July 1918
Wounded: 8 Oct 1918
Died: 19 Nov 1918 in France

In 1920, the Army published a series of publications on unit histories of all the units that participated in WWI. These contain all the excruciating detail of the daily movements and activities of each unit, including highly detailed maps. I have the one for the

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