William Vincent Lawlor (I) was the second youngest of the ten children of Patrick Lawlor and Elizabeth Reed, who immigrated to the United States in the wake of the Great Famine in Ireland. William was born on July 4, 1859 in Iowa; he died from pancreatitis on November 10, 1910 in Butte, Montana. My best guess is that here he is in his late 30's or early 40's.
Margaret Morris, the first wife of William Vincent Lawlor, above, and our shared paternal great grandmother, was born on March 12, 1867 in Dubuque, Iowa; she died from tuberculosis on March 16, 1904 in Pasadena, California (in a location later incorporated as Altadena). This photo was taken in Butte, Montana c. 1888.
This later portrait of Margaret Morris is a singularly famous Lawlor family photo. The photo was taken c. 1895 in Salt Lake City and here includes the original C.R. Savage paper mount. (C.R. Savage, the famed Mormon photographer, was best known for his photos of the transcontinental joinder of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.)
A stand-alone version of the above photo of Margaret Morris.
Yet another portrait taken by C.R. Savage in Salt Lake City, Utah, c. 1892. This is William Vincent Lawlor (II) who was born in 1890 in Butte, Montana; he died in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. He was known to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren as "Grandpa Honey."
A stand-alone version of the above photo of William Vincent Lawlor (II).
Yet another photo of William Vincent Lawlor (II) as a young boy. It is not known when or where this particular photo was taken.
William Vincent Lawlor (II) at age 52, in all his 4' 11" sartorial splendor, at the Santa Barbara wedding of my parents, Edward Reeve Lawlor (1920-1998) and Jeanne Elizabeth Largent (1920-2003).
A stunning professional portrait of Grace Agnes Reeve, my paternal grandmother, the wife of William, above. Grace was born in San Diego, California in 1891; she died in Los Angeles in 1969. This particular restoration includes the original paper mount showing it was taken by Fred Hartsook, a famous Los Angeles celebrity photographer of the time.
A more polished stand-alone version of the above photo of Grace Agnes Reeve, with adjustments to compensate for faded tones, with modest changes to even out the lighting on her face.
Theresa Doyle Keating, the mother of Grace Agnes Reeve, above. Theresa was born on March 17, 1860—on St. Patrick’s Day, people!—in County Cork, Ireland. About 1875, at age 15, she emigrated to the United States. She died in Los Angeles on June 12, 1942.
Among all the Lawlor family restorations, this stands out as the most true labor of love: Mary Elizabeth Donovan, my mother's mother, and my generation's most beloved grandparent. No better woman has ever walked God's green earth! Her grandchildren all knew her simply as "Docku" (pronounced dock-koo).
As a callow youth I once—and only once, believe me—teased her by saying, "I heard you are not really Irish." She responded angerly, defiantly, looking directly at me, "I am a Donovan, don't you know!" She was born in 1896 in Washington, D.C., of an Irish immigrant father from Cork, Ireland, and an immigrant mother from England, via Canada, most likely also of Irish descent. Mary died in Los Angeles in 1992.