Fannie Leary and Howard Edwards, Houston, Texas, 1940s

This pair of photographs shows two halves of a couple walking down a street in Houston, Texas: Fannie Leary and Howard Edwards. I identified the store behind them as Everitt-Buelow Company, a women’s clothing store. There were three locations in Houston: one on Main and Lamar in Downtown, one on Post Oak Boulevard, and one at Champion Forest. Signage in the window advertises an “Allied Relief Ball for Democracy” at the Coliseum. The “Coliseum” is the Sam Houston Coliseum and Music Hall, which opened in 1937. Based on what I could find in The Houston Post, this event took place on July 4th, 1940, which gives us an exact year for when the photo was taken. (As a side note, the Relief Ball was attended by special guests Olivia De Havilland, James Stewart, Tyrone Power, and Henry Fonda, among others. Pretty impressive line-up!)

Fannie Lucille Leary was born on April 3rd, 1917, in Texas to Tillie Elizabeth Walters and John Wiggins Leary. Fannie was one of ten siblings, including Walter, Alice, Arline, Edmund, Thelma, Jaunita, Clifford, Timothy, and Marcella. In 1940, Fannie’s sister Alice tragically died in a car accident near Alvin, Texas at the age of 21.

In 1941, 24-year-old Fannie married Howard Merle Edwards in Harris County, Texas. Howard was born in Tucumcari, New Mexico, on June 30th, 1907. His World War II Draft Card from 1940 describes him as having blue-gray eyes and brown hair, and lists his employer as George Kalleen of the High Hat Nightclub in Houston, where he was a bartender (this is crossed out and replaced with “G W Buvinghausen Inc,” though George Kalleen is still listed as his contact). Howard had been previously married at least twice; in the 1930 census, his wife is listed as Emma Edwards, and they are living with Emma’s children from a previous marriage. In the 1940 census, his wife is Mabel Edwards, a waitress at a cafe.

In 1950, Howard was a painter for a rubber company, and Fannie was “keeping house.” The couple did not have children.

Howard passed away in 1998 at the age of  90. Fannie passed away in 2008, just a few days after her 91st birthday. Sadly, I can not find where she was buried.

If you know anything else about her, please let us know in the comments!