Oh Mary!

Mary Ann Apodaca June 1961

Played hooky from the shop today (thank you Andy and Rafa!) so I could meet up with my cousins Marilyn Fitzgerald, Daisy Wendkos, Millie Apodaca and Della Gurney--our parents are siblings--to strategize an Apodaca reunion in the coming year. We scanned over 100 photos, and shared as many stories.
This will be the first reunion in nearly two decades: My father, David Apodaca, R.I.P., was the longtime keeper of our genealogy--including collecting and snapping photographs and hosting the annual extended family soiree.

Given my penchant for picture taking and parties, guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

On that note, it's this vintage studio shot of my Aunt Mary Ann that I carefully studied as a little girl. Everything about it fascinated me, especially how she got to this moment.
She died when I was 8. But I spent hours with her through this photograph. Love the mad uber-graphic print of her knit dress.
Like most struggling actors with flair and a figure, she worked as a model, too, and Marilyn recently gifted me a July 1957 copy of "The California Girl: The Magazine Styled for California Fashion." Inside, our Aunt Mary Ann strikes a pose in sophisticated, pencil-silhouetted skirts and dresses for the Lebanon of California brand, a company that is history...in the ever evolving fashion industry here, and, as history of a more lasting kind, now my own.

Comments

[Michelle Fisher]

Hi Rose, I'm your cousin Michelle (Apodaca) Fisher. My father was your Father's brother Michael. I have that same picture of our Aunt"Maria" Mary Ann. I think she legally changed her name. I'm older then you are so I remember more about her. She was beautiful inside and out. A really sweet person. You maybe know she died of Anorexia Nervosa. I remember thinking "What is that"? When Karen Carpenter died I figured it out. I hope this gives you a little insite to our Aunt Maria!