Osborne-Crozier Gathering

I have posted before about how the Osbornes loved to have big family gatherings. This picture is from about 1924. The photo label on the back says that it was developed in Pomona, but it could have been taken at a number of locations. Most likely is Aunt Alma and Uncle Ed's house in South Pasadena, since theirs was by far the largest home, and they did love to host family parties. I resisted the urge to crop the picture to center it more, since the original shows the wonderful old car parked to the left. Perhaps one of the car buffs out there can identify it for me. 

The ages of the children helped me figure out when the picture was taken, since this is one of the MANY photos I have that remain unlabeled. I can easily identify the children:

Front row from left: George Edgar (Bud) Arnold, Dormel Arnold, Joseph Osborne (my Uncle Bud) Crozier, Margaret Maria (Jane) Major, Margaret Julia Crozier (my mom), Charles Russell (Russ) Crozier, Mary Margaret Crozier

Some of the adults were a bit more challenging, but here are they are as best I can figure:

Back row from left: Dorthy Grier Arnold, Gladys?, Georgia Osborne Major, Great-grandma Maggie Lucy Long Osborne, Margaret (Pearl) Osborne Page, Margaret (Maggie) Roberts, ?, Alma Osborne Grier, Julia Osborne Crozier (my grandma), Mary Clementine (Clem) White Crozier

As I was trying to identify the adults, I had a bit of a "Eureka!" moment: I have been trying for years to identify the rather large woman with the glasses and mountainous bosom who is in the center of the back row. She appears in many of these family gathering photos, but I couldn't figure out who she was. Yesterday it hit me. She's Maggie Roberts, daughter of my great-great-aunt Julia Long Roberts. Maggie shows up in photos I have of the Roberts family in Colorado, and she looks like quite a character in those pictures. That's Maggie front and center seated amongst family and friends on a picnic in the Colorado Rockies.

I had always wondered why Maggie wasn't a part of these family gatherings, since my great-grandmother Lucy was very close to her sister, Maggie Roberts's mom, and I knew that Maggie had ended up in Los Angeles too. Two mysteries solved (who was that woman in the glasses and was Maggie in touch with the Los Angeles part of the family). All it took was a bit of obsessive poring over old family photos for a few years!

In the case of another mystery I've been trying to solve—who the heck is Gladys?—I now have proof that she was still a part of the family in 1924. Up until now, the only pictures I have of the mysterious Gladys are from around 1920. What makes Gladys a mystery is that she is listed in the 1920 census as being a daughter in the Grier household, the same age as my mom's cousin Dorthy Grier. She's not listed as a part of that family in any other census, and I don't have any memory of my mom mentioning Gladys. It's clear from the few pictures I have of her that she and Dot were best of buddies, however. One of these days I expect to have my "Eureka" moment regarding the lovely Gladys. Until then..

Gladys and Dot, circa 1920

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