Creating Fiction from History: 4/20/2022

The announcements had been sent out! Miss Jane Lippincot, daughter of Joseph and Mary Lippincot of St. Joseph, Missouri was to be wed to Richard Duane Journeyman, son of Everard and Janice Journeyman of St. Louis, Missouri. The date for the blessed event had been set for May 1, 1921. The ceremony was to take place at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France. Joseph and Mary had been looking forward to this day for over 20 years now and it seemed their dreams were soon to come to fruition!

Richard had returned home safely from the war; Everard and Janice were convinced their God had shone His light on them! As good French Catholics, the Journeymans had attended Mass at the Basilica for years, ever since they had set foot on this blessed soil a bit over 20 years ago. When their firstborn had decided to join his countrymen in defending their own soil, they were ecstatic, though admittedly a bit apprehensive. They were sure God would watch over their angel, but still, what if?

The Lippincots were anything but Catholic, though they would have done pretty much anything in their power to see their daughter wed. Because of this, they acquiesced to wedding her off in the most Catholic church in Missouri.

American through and through, the Lippincots were more of what could have been called a Heinz 57 family, genealogically speaking. Both of Jane's parents had been born just across the Missouri from St. Joseph, in Elwood, Kansas. Although she was born in Elwood, St. Joseph was pretty much all Jane ever knew, until the occasion of her 18th birthday, when her parents took her to the big city, where this fine photograph was captured.