Lynn English High School graduates, 1929

I found this set of inscribed photos of the classmates of Bessie Burke in an antique store, and was compelled to rescue it intact. I've spent a year thinking it through and deciding how to array it for possible analysis, thinking about the stories contained within, and wondering what we can/could/might learn from the set. What were the conditions of their lives? Born 1911-1912, adolescents in the Roaring 20s, new graduates on the eve of the Depression, in their 30s during WWII, retirement age in the late 1970s... We see them below with their adult lives ahead of them, on the brink. Some suffered tragedies, some surely had happy lives, some endured horrors in childhood or as grownups, and one (Concetta Rando) may be still alive in 2017.

They lived in Lynn, a rather gritty northern suburb of Boston, once a city of shoe factories and immigrant workers (French Canadian, Irish, Polish, Italian, Greek), site of a large General Electric plant, and (according to Wikipedia) "long colloquially referred to as the 'City of Sin,' owing to its historic reputation for crime and vice."

Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin,
you'll never come out the way you went in,
what looks like gold is really tin,
the girls say 'no' but they'll give in,
Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin.

Lynn is home to Durkee-Mower, makers of Marshmallow Fluff.

Lynn English High School was a Vocational school, offering these courses: Stenographic Course, General Technical Course, Household Arts Course, Accounting, Electrical, Pattern Making, Machine Design Printing, Cabinet Making, Machine Shop, Architectural Design, Carpentry, General Clerical.

This is probably Bessie Burke herself:

Bessie Burke herself

Bessie's classmates (whose names are inscribed on the backs of the photos) command our attention and consideration, one by one, but my first draft of a YouTube video presentation of the photos provides a complementary introduction to them:

Eleanor Castle
Eleanor Castle Eleanor Castle 1927

Anne B.
Anne B

Ed Thomas
Ed Thomas

Eleanor Bisbee
Eleanor Bisbee

Agnes Barry
Agnes Barry
(died 1997, Wife of the late William J. "Bud" Manning Jr.)

Raymond Leach
Raymond Leach

Edna LeBlanc
Edna LeBlanc

Florence
Florence

Helen Ferabing
Helen Ferabing

Hilda Alessandro
Hilda Alessandro

Ruth Burt
Ruth Burt

Alice Caldwell
Alice Caldwell

Maurice Mederos
Maurice Medros

Charlie Dullea
Charlie Dullea

Eleanor Burk
Eleanor Burk

Elizabeth Baker
Elizabeth Baker

Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien

Alida DuPont
Alida Du Pont
on the list of 1926 graduates of Cobbett Junior High School

Henry Jewel
Henry Jewel

Norman Barbeau
Norman Barbeau
(Ward 5 Lynn in 1940 Census)

Ida Bluois (perhaps Blois)
Ida Bluois

Annette Auger
Annette Auger
(Cobbett Junior High School, 1926)

Concetta Rando
Concetta Rando
(Concetta was still alive, at 105, in 2016)

Harold Beale
Harold Beale

Louise Keith
Louise Keith

Anna
Anna

Helen McDormand
Helen McDormand
(family from Annapolis County, NS; died Lynnfield 26 Oct 1994)

Madeline Ratican
Madeline Ratican
(graduated Lynn Hospital School of Nursing, 1936)

Ruth Beede
Ruth Beede

Charles Comenas
Charles Comenas
(still living at home, 1940 Census)

Alma Crosscup
Alma Crosscup

Ruth Johnson
Ruth Johnson

Louise Birmingham
Louise Birmingham

Florence Olsen
Florence Olsen

Earl Turnbull
Earl Turnbull

Esther Brown
Esther Brown

Bob McLaughlin
Bob McLaughlin

Arthur
Arthur

Roseda Byrd
Roseda Byrd
(Cobbett Junior High School, 1926; married Frederick Anderson)

Maude Applebee
Maude Applebee

Joe B.
Joe B

Clifford Dow
Clifford Dow

Howard Dow
Howard Dow

Irene Antoline
Irene Antoline

Gertrude Breen
Gertrude Breen
(still living at home in 1940 Census)

Ned Gale
Ned Gale

Ruth Burke
Ruth Burke

Gladys Glowarka
Gladys Glowarka

Mary Adams
Mary Adams

Marion Bowman
Marion Bowman

Grace Gunning
Grace Gunning
(still living at home in 1940 Census)

Stasia Turkowski
Stasia Turkowski

Victoria Baluhonie
Victoria Baluhonie

Amelia Petkewich
Amelia Petkewich

Pauline Petkewich
Pauline Petkewich

Mil Draper
Mil Draper

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