Major Surprise In Store for July 2003 Reunion Attendees! (Part 2)

[27 May 2003] by Frederick W. Vogler

In her introductory message to our Foundation last June, our young cousin Heather Crain informed us that for the past two centuries a miniature painting enclosed in a locket had been passed down from generation to generation in her family as a treasured heirloom. In recent years, it had finally come to rest in her mother Janice Temple Crain’s safety deposit box while she was serving as Executor of the estate of Heather’s grandmother, Marie Antionette Vogler Temple (1930-1992), herself the only daughter of George Edward Vogler (1881-1970) and his wife Lillie Greene Vogler. Since a brother had inherited the locket itself, Heather’s mother decided to have a copy made of the miniature painting it contained. However, because somewhere along the line a Vogler ancestor had decided to replace the locket’s popped-off glass cover with another that could be permanently sealed, it was no longer possible to remove the painting without damaging it in order to have it photocopied satisfactorily. Luckily, Heather’s mother came up with the idea of going to a special shop to have it computer-scanned rather than photocopied in color while still in its locket. Although this was successfully accomplished and the resulting image blown up to 5″ x 7″ size, actually getting a computer to print it out in that format proved to be another matter. Time after time the computer would simply stop before producing any image. Finally, though, after many fruitless attempts, the desired color image was obtained in its new blown-up format.

It was at this point that Heather decided to move on her aunt Gwenda Temple Williams’s suggestion that she try to make contact with someone officially involved with our Foundation to offer us a copy of that blown-up image if we happened to be interested in acquiring it, as indeed we were. And sure enough, a few weeks later our president John B. Houston and Betty Vogler Houston did receive that promised copy — by regular mail rather than as an e-mail attachment, given the problems previously encountered when trying to obtain a computer printout of that scanned miniature painting.

But what exactly was its subject? And why were those of us who got to see it after its arrival so surprised and delighted that it had now come into the Foundation’s possession? That will be taken up in the next (and final) installment of this announcement.

(TO BE REVEALED…)