MYRTLE IRENE DOBSON

When I looked up my Uncle Earle’s picture in the 1918 Lewiston High School annual, I was surprised to find his sister Myrtle pictured on the same page. As noted in a previous post, Uncle Earle, was already 21 when attending Lewiston High School, but Myrtle, born March 28, 1894, was two years older. She was 24 when she graduated.

Her given name was Myrtle Irene, but in adulthood, she asked to be called “Lynn,” so I called her “Aunt Lynn.”

Under her picture in the annual is the following: “’Her voice is low and sweet and dark brown is her e’e.’ Myrtle was a very welcome addition to our class when she came to us this year. She is noted for her eyes and for her concentration in study periods.” Her plan was to attend the University of Oregon, and her ambition was to be an engraver.

Well, I’m sorry to say that college and a career as an artist didn’t happen for Myrtle. In the ‘30s, perhaps before, she worked as a photo retoucher for a Portland photographer. Grandma Ina (her mother, of course) hoped she had found good employment, but by 1933, Myrtle was tiring of it.

“I hope you can manage to help Myrtle soon,” Ina wrote to Vance, my dad, in 1933. Exactly what she wanted Vance to do for Myrtle, I have no idea since he was struggling himself. “That girl is in a serious spot,” Ina continued. “She has arthritis in her arms now to add to her other ills – colitis, sinus, and nerves. She can’t stand this retouching any more, not enough of it to hire anyway. Bear in mind that she sees things differently from the rest of us, and is far from accurate though just as truthful as you or I. I think she’s unreasonable sometimes, but she is a splendid girl all the way through.”

I love that paragraph! Spoken like a true mother! She knows her child's faults, but she is altogether splendid anyway.  

And yes, Myrtle was splendid through and through. She was intelligent, artistic, capable, and energetic. She was the type of person who got things done. She would have made an excellent farm wife, and if she could have translated her skills into a vocation, she might have been an excellent secretary. I think that whatever Lynn wanted from life just didn’t happen for her, and life for an unmarried woman was difficult in those years. She was basically homeless, and when I was young, I feared I might become just like her.

My mother told me that Myrtle had never married because she “carried a torch” for the young man in this picture. He had moved away and married someone else, and Myrtle didn’t get over it, Mother said. Well – maybe. And maybe she didn’t find her calling or her calling was out of reach. And I guess she just didn’t want to be a teacher, which might have been the only realistic path open to her.

After Grandpa Jack died, Myrtle moved back to the farm as Grandma’s companion and caregiver. We have Myrtle to thank for writing Grandma’s story. She also organized Grandma’s recipe box. She was right in her element taking care of Grandma, the house, and the garden. By the time Grandma Ina died in 1957, Lynn was 63 -- at retirement age and homeless. Eventually she shared Uncle Earle’s home in Nezperce until they both needed nursing care, about 1970. Myrtle died December 28, 1971, at the age of 77. KW

[We have several studio portraits of Myrtle, probably because she worked for a photographer.]