A Snapshot in Time

The Grayson Family, 1921

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” So goes a phrase that first became popular in the United States in the early 1920s, about the same time a family photograph of our ancestors was taken. The reverse is often true as well. Words can make some pictures more meaningful.

Col. William L. Grayson

William Leon Grayson (1870-1941), our maternal great-grandfather, was the only child of railroad machinist Edward F.R. Grayson (1847-1901) and homemaker Laura Amanda Patterson Grayson (1847-1916). William was a self-made man. Energetic and gregarious, William began working as a produce clerk at his uncle’s store on Bay Street in Savannah, Georgia as a teen, and entered into a partnership with him in his 20s. William later became a leader in city government, in the state militia, in fraternal lodges, veterans organizations, and state politics – eventually rising to chief of staff to the governor of Georgia and national leader of both the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the United Spanish War Veterans. The baseball field at Daffin Park is named in William’s honor.

Lillian T. Grayson

Lillian Melvin Turner Grayson (1872-1936) was the granddaughter of Richard T. Turner (ca. 1808-1877), another self-educated man who rose to local and regional prominence. Lillian was the fifth of nine Turner siblings, seven of whom lived into adulthood. Lillian and William had seven children between 1893 and 1915, though their eldest son Willie died of dysentery shortly before his second birthday.

The Pattersons and Other Relations

William’s mother Laura was the second of four Patterson sisters. Their only brother died of cholera at age 18. The young Grayson family lived with Laura and Edward Grayson. When the latter died in 1901, 30 year-old William became the head of a household that included his widowed mother and his spinster aunt Elizabeth S. (Eliza) Patterson (1844-1921). Over the next thirty-five years censuses and city directories attest that the Grayson household often included various aunts, sons-in-law, grandchildren, and other relations.

The Photograph

Our mother Mary Ann Grayson Guevara (1942-2015) penciled “1921” on the back of the photograph many years later, along with the names of the family members depicted. She may have asked her father Leon Harman Grayson (1906-1993), or she may have surmised them from her knowledge of family genealogy. Based on the apparent ages of the Grayson siblings and grandchildren along with the absence of Eliza Patterson, it is likely the photo was taken following the late-September funeral of Laura’s older sister. The fur collar of one sister and the bare legs of the younger relatives don’t help in pinpointing the exact time of year, however.

Lynne was the only married Grayson sibling in 1921. Her husband Leo Mueller, a Coast Guard officer, was probably deployed at the time of the photograph. William’s aunt Mary Ellen Patterson Davis, widowed in 1913, was the last surviving Patterson sibling. She died in 1928.

The toddler boy front and center is identified as Richard Turner. Aaron (aka Allen) Richard “Dickie” Turner (1919-1972) was Lillian’s nephew, the youngest child of her older brother Henry Selkirk “Harry” Turner (1869-1947). Harry’s wife Mary Allen Turner (1872-1920) gave birth to their fifth child Dickie at the age of 47. The intact family was living in New Orleans on January 7, 1920, their transient lifestyle clearly indicated by the places of birth for each – Harry (Georgia, occupation Naval Stores Exporter), Mary (China -Am. Cit.), and their five children ages 15 to 4 months (in descending order Florida, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana). Mary died just one month later. The Grayson photo was not taken until nearly 20 months after Mary Turner died. Perhaps an overwhelmed Harry sent Dickie off to his Georgia relatives for a while, where the boy’s older cousins could help care for him. If the matching sailor outfits are any indication, it was not a brief visit. His missing siblings also suggest a longer stay. Harry remarried in May 1923, by which time Dickie must certainly have been reunited with the rest of his family. Dickie subsequently enjoyed a long career as a foreign service officer, moving often just as his father did. He and his wife Patsy Magee Turner had four children, notably the actress Kathleen Turner (b. 1954).