This is Zoe Hennesy b. 1905 in Washington Parish, Louisiana to James Leon Hennesy and Lucy Virginia Myles. She died in 1989? So, I don’t really know. And if you do maybe you could drop me a line. She married a man named Ray Middleton and I’ve no marriage date for that.
This retouching was done when I first started working with Photoshop a number of years ago. I wanted to bring the image of Zoe to life and went bright with the colors as I had become weary of always using browns and blues. I thought I’d put her in bright red and chartreuse, which I view now as quite a mistake, no matter how tired I was of browns and blues.
When was the photo taken? The style reminds me of Natalie Wood in the movie “Inside Daisy Clover” which was supposed to occur in the early 30s I believe. We’ve a photo as well of her in 1924 when Ethel Simmons married Esmond Hennesy, Zoe’s brother, and she is definitely younger in that one and her hair style is different, shorter and she has bangs. I know my first impression when I saw this photo, before finding the 1930 census which gives Zoe as living in a rooming house and working as a clerk, is that it was of an independent, working woman. I don’t know what about her gave me that read, but I’d be inclined to think this was from that time period…except for the fact she appears to be wearing a wedding band. So this would have to be subsequent 1930.
My grandmother died shortly after the birth of their fifth child, a little girl, Zeda, who died as an infant…Zoe, the youngest surviving daughter, was raised by Lucy’s mother and father, Edward and Rene Myles. Before they would agree to take her, they made my grandfather promise that he would never try to take her back, that she would be their child, even though they never legally adopted her.
MY PERSONAL PROFILE AND FAMILY OF ORIGIN, by Jean (Hennesy) Kearns, November 20, 1991
Edward Myles was about 62 and Rene was about 60 when they took Zoe in. Edward died in 1920 so Zoe would have been 15. Rene died in 1924 when Zoe was 19. Which I imagine would have been tough, losing one’s mother and then losing Edward and Rene while she was a teenager, though her father lived to 1938. The 1920 census shows Edward and Rene’s daughter, Lillie, in the household so she must have been a help.
In 1930 Zoe was self-supporting as a clerk in Bogalusa while in 1930 Lillie was living in the household of William J. Carpenter, the widowed husband of Lillie’s sister, Effie, who had died some time between 1920 and 1930. No doubt she was likely helping to raise the remaining children in the household. The 1920 census showed her as 40. As did the 1930.
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 1, Washington, Louisiana; Roll T624_534; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 124; Image: 21.
Franklinton and Covington Road
120/129 MYLES Edward 66 md. 44 years, b. LA parents b. LA, general farming
Sarena A. wife 62, 8 of 12 children surviving
Lillie daughter 23
Zoa A. daughter 15 [sic]
121/129 MYLES John D. 24 md. 6 years, general farming
Michele wife 23, 2 children
Sarena daughter 4
Edward son 2
122/129 CARPENTER Willie J. 30, md. 6 years, general farming
Effie J. 25, 3 children
Bessie daughter 5
Edith daughter 3
Leo son 1
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Police Jury Ward 9, Washington, Louisiana; Roll 31109_4300990; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 148; Image: 514.
75 WELCH George 18 b. LA parents b. LA farm laborer
Lillie wife 18
76 CARPENTER Will 50 farmer on rural farm
Effie wife 33
Bessie daughter 15
Edith daughter 12
Leo son 11
Dallas son 7
Allie son 1 and 1/12
80 MYLES Edward 75 farmer parish
Rena wife 74 b. MS parents b. MS
Lillie daughter 40 b. LA father b. LA mother b. MS
HENNESY Zoe granddaughter 14 b. LA parents b. LA
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 9, Washington, Louisiana; Roll 825; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 22; Image: 96.0.
Franklinton-Amite Highway
8/10 CARPENTER William J. 57 widowed, married at 25 b. LA parents b. LA farmer
Bessie daughter 24 nurse at hospital
Edith daughter 22 nurse at hospital
Leo son 21 laborer on highway
Dalas son 17 laborer on farm
Ray son 14
Allan son 11
MYLES Lillie sister-in-law 40
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Bogalusa, Washington, Louisiana; Roll 824; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 7; Image: 765.0.
301 Mississippi Ave. 166.
174 SPORL M. J. $4000 50 49 md at 49 b. LA parents b. LA steward on steamship line
Blanche wife 38 md at 37 b. LA
BANKSTON May E. roomer 33 operator at telephone co
HUEY Velma roomer 23 b. MS parents b. MS operator at telephone co
ARA Alma roomer 25 b. LA parents b. LA operator at telephone co
SIMMONS Thurmon roomer 38 automobile salesman
SCOTT Evelyn roomer 17 b. AR parents b. AR waitress at hotel
SMITH Harriet roomer 19 b. MS parents b. MS waitress at hotel
HENNESSEY Zoe roomer 26 b. LA parents b. LA clerk at cafe
HENRY Walter roomer 35 salesman of carbon lights
301 Mississippi Avenue is somewhere there below.
If descendants of Zoe run across this and have further information they’d like to leave on her, please do.
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