Creating Fiction for History: Barbara Stanwick

"C'mon, Princess; give us a smile!" Try as he might, young James Francis Ramsey, of the newly formed Cabinet Card Photographers, could only coax a ghost of a smile out of an even younger Barbara Stanwick, formerly of La Crosse, a mere 63 miles away. The reason that our poor little princess couldn't bring herself to smile: she was recently orphaned.

Young Barbara and her parents, Ted and Viola Stanwick, had been looking forward to this long day-trip for almost a year now, ever since young James Ramsey had passed through their little town last year, trying to drum up some business for his new venture. The Stanwicks had eagerly signed up for a session.

As luck would have it, Ted, who worked in the family business, came home one dreary January evening with a sniffle. He told his wife he was fine. Sure enough, the next morning he woke up feeling ready to tackle the day, so off to work he went. Ted came home early that day, with a bit more than a sniffle. Something was wrong and it wasn't long before Viola was waiting on him hand and foot. Being in such close proximity to her husband, it wasn't long before Viola, too, developed a sniffle, which steadily grew into something worse.

Poor little princess; Stanwicks though they were, even the best doctors couldn't save her parents from their fate. They quickly succumbed to whatever had begun as just a sniffle and little Barbara was orphaned at the delicate age of nearly 5. Our little princess was trundled off to live with her Uncle John and Aunt Bess, who lived in the even smaller town of New Lisbon. Though she felt like she was alone, little Miss Barbara kept her appointment that day!