Photos by Margaret Thayer, Stuttgart, Arkansas, 1950s

 In my family's collection of photos are two of a baby in a crib with a blonde-haired doll. I am trying to confirm that these are pictures of my brother Charles Thomas Waggoner ("Charlie") born in December of 1951. I had sent the photo to Charlie, but he didn't remember it.

The evidence I have to confirm this.

  • The photos are in our family collection, which gives credence to the baby being in the family.
  • I remember my brother Bob (born in 1954) teasing Charlie that his pictures were taking with a girl doll.
  • The slats on the crib are pretty far apart, the crib pad has a circus theme, the baby is wearing a cotton or linen gown, the baby has short socks on, and it is photographed with a doll propped up in bed. These are all common to photos of babies taken during the height of the baby boom in the 1950s.
  • Margie Payer was a sophomore at Stuttgart High School when my parents were seniors and she is in their 1947 senior yearbook. According to her obituary, she spent her career in banking and was a Master Gardener. The obituary does not mention photography, but a quick query on the Stuttgart FaceBook page confirms that Margie Payer (later Margie Marchand and Margie Miller) did freelance photography, including a wedding in 1953, confirming that she was an active photographer around the time Charlie was born.



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