Class of 1932

In June 2012, I posted this photo of my grandmother Blanche Allene O'Brien. I now know this was her senior picture. My guess is that she was 18 years old in this photo, or 19 if it was taken after November 1931.

Blanche Allene O'Brien - Photo source, Keith D. Jones

Today a package arrived from the helpful folks at Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis containing copies from Volume Seven, Number Nine of The Riparian yearbook. The head shot of Blanche is a match to the original photo that was in my Gumpy's papers. Back in July, I wrote about how I had found Blanche in the 1930 and 1931 Riparian yearbook from the Indianapolis Public Library's digital collection, but the 1932 Riparian was missing. Huge thanks go out to the staff at Broad Ripple who sent a set of high quality copies of the pages with Blanche.

Source: Broad Ripple High School, Indianapolis

1932 Riparian yearbook, page 10

Blanche was part of the yearbook and school newspaper staff in 1932 (something I also did back in the day in high school sixty years after Blanche).

The seniors in each class had a habit of writing a "senior alphabet" couplet for the yearbook. Blanche was featured as the letter "o" on page 18. "O stands for O'Brien, a real Irish maid, a charming young miss whom with pranks you can't 'fade.'"

Riparian yearbook 1932, page 37.

In the English class photo above, Blanche is first from the left on the second row.

It is great to have this, and this view of her last year of high school connects well with the post-graduation information on Blanche's beauty salon in Broad Ripple. She was clearly well liked in her class.