May 7, 1915

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Cider Press, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

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269 Carl St., San Francisco, Cal.
Hello Jennie Dear,
Here I am up here with Retta. Having a nice time of course we have spoken of you many times she sends lots of love to you and would love to see you so would I how is uncle Charley. our love to him. Also to Olney with lots and lots to you do write us this is her address you have mine. Yours ever Cousin Lizzie
Go back to Los Angeles soon.

 

It had been a while since Lizzie had written Jennie, and vice versa. She did not realize that her Uncle Charlie had died six months before, in November of 1914.  Nor did Euretta know this.  But how could she?  Lizzie was her only messenger from that life in Rhode Island Euretta had left years before. Sarah Elizabeth (Cotton) Rounds, Lizzie, would die at 70, in March of 1917.  The living ties between five cousins, two sets of sisters - the children of the minstrel star Ben Cotton and those of his brother Charles - were unwinding.