THE SCRAPBOOK MYSTERY

 (First published in INKY TRAIL NEWS — Jul/Aug 2002)

 

 

In my last article I mentioned asking your help in solving a 70-year-old mystery.  First understand this quest is not a life or death matter, only my hope you'll join my insatiable curiosity seeking answers or reasons behind the mystery.  Here's the background and meager information to this point.

 

The Nov/Dec 2002 issue of Inky Trail News carried my article, "Don't Burn Your Library."  For those who missed this, the article spoke to the cache of cards, letters, and photos I found in my mother's cedar chest after her death.  But she'd failed to include information with many items, thus their significance was unclear.  I suggested we could avoid the same mistake by taking the time to include notes with our collections of such things so their meaning would be clear to those who would someday look through it all.  Soon after the article appeared a woman contacted me about a scrapbook she'd purchased in a used bookstore 25 years earlier.  I asked to see it and soon wondered how this delightful book had reached this end.  That's the mystery I'd like to solve.

 

The book had a dark brown cover but of material much thinner than used with modern hardcover novels.  The front had the word "scrapbook," written as two words, Scrap and Book, one above the other in script font.  Below this was the stamped impression of a windmill, a jolly image much like you'd see in children's books.  Bordering the title and the windmill was a flowery scroll.  The rear cover had no marking. 

 

The scrapbook was 8.5" X 11" and held together by a pair of rivets.  The name Elizabeth Newton was written with an ink pen on the first page, yet a loose card within the book gave the full name as Elizabeth Placida Newton.  Inside the rear cover were two lines written with a pencil: "D' ya wanna buy a desk" and "Feb 4, 1934 Sunday." 

 

The book's content was poetry, many entries handwritten with an ink pen, and others looking like clippings from newspapers and magazines.  An Internet search for the names with these clippings indicated some of the authors were prominent writers.  Other names garnered no results. 

 

Additional clues within this scrapbook included a form, "Authorization For Allotment Pay," in the name of 1^st Lt. Edward H. Sandell, of the 128^th Infantry, made out for a Mrs. Edward H. Sandell.  No date or address was given, but the form was printed in November of 1939. 

 

Another item was a poem written in longhand on stationery belonging to St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, Ill.  This carried a poorly written date of either Jan or Jun 5^th 1936.  A notation below the poem said: "Translated for Elizabeth N. by her friend . . .. "  The signature was not legible. 

 

Finally, there was a playbill titled, "The Aunt With A Million," presented by The Senior Class of 1933, Toulon Township High School.  Performances were scheduled for Friday and Saturday Evenings, May 12-13, and the play was produced and directed in five days by Miss Olive Kackley of Chicago.  Elizabeth Newton's role in the play was that of The "Only" Girl. 

                                                

Who was Miss Kackley?  Billboard had this to say about her: "Olive Kackley is the most remarkable woman in America in her line of work, putting on Royalty Plays in less than a week."

 

An investment of time and love went into Elizabeth Newton's Scrap Book, so how did it end up in a used bookstore 25 years ago?  That's the mystery and my drive to solve it is twofold.  First, this young woman's graduation date was the same as my mother's.  They lived miles apart, Elizabeth in Illinois and my mother in Florida, but they shared an era.  Second, because I cherish the items my mother left behind, I'm also certain Elizabeth's heirs would feel the same.  Seeing this scrapbook into their hands, then, is a worthy goal.  Help me if you can. 

 

You may contact me at bob@bobburdick.com and to view other material found with this scrapbook, please visit my website at www.bobburdick.com and click on "MYSTERY."  This other material includes the 34 names in Elizabeth's graduating class and the title/author for many of the poems in her scrapbook.  To borrow words from a popular TV series, "Someone out there holds the key to this mystery."

NOTE: You'll now find this additional information and photos by clicking "Memorabilia" on the Home Page.