STORY PHOTOGRAPHY

About
Portraits
Preservation
Commercial
Blog
Contact
More

Great Grandma Zita

Zita grew up “well fixed” in the town of Rocky Ford, CO. When her family lost their footing due to bad investments and the great depression, they left behind their modern life. They traveled about 80 miles south to help her brother homestead, a journey that would have taken between 6-8 days.

Zita early 20s, Photographer unknown

In 1913, Zita accepted a teaching job at a one-room schoolhouse. She described it in an article she wrote, “The schoolroom was about ten by fifteen feet with two windows on the north side, one partly boarded up as the panes had been broken out and never replaced during the term. There were two doors on the south side with small panes in them. The dirt floor was not even smooth. ” Wintering at the Tobe School, Frontier Times, March 1981.

Zita’s school bell held by her namesake- 2019

A young man named Roy took a “special interest in her welfare” and rode twenty miles to ask Zita to apply for a teaching job at the Cobert school. The school was much closer to his homestead.

Cactus flowers on the ranch, 2019 / Zita’s necklace photographed on an old school book of hers / 1920s cloche

What remains of the Cobert school where Zita taught for $55/yr. Now only some of the cold room remains amongst a hundred years of oak brush and cedar growth.

Self- portrait wearing clothing found amongst Zita’s belongings

They were married in Trinidad, Colorado on August 2nd and had the wedding dance on August 5th, 1916. Their wedding announcement included an introduction of the couple including, “The groom is a worthy and industrious young farmer and has already a cozy home on his ranch, where the
newlyweds will at once go to housekeeping.”
Roy “Dick” and Zita’s marriage certificate.

Pearl Hat - 1920s cloche - Chicago

My ancestor's story

Her wedding dress in her home, 2019. Day of the wedding dance photo, 1916 photographed on dress.

The Richard Simmons box Zita’s wedding dress, shoes & stockings were found in.

Amongst the many hats (<50), there were three that were most likely not Zita’s including this Victorian top hat - 1880s-1890s. Since she was born in 1891 this probably was not hers but it was something she kept, maybe to remind her of someone else.

Zita’s daughter and my grandmother, Dorothy’s hands. 2006

On the back of the photo is written:

“In RF (Rocky Ford) 1918 just before DD (Dorothy Deane) was born. ZPL (Zita Pauline Louden)”

Dorothy Deane is the eldest child and only daughter of Zita. I believe Zita had certain expectations for her daughter but Dorothy was a tomboy, preferring to work cows rather than be in the kitchen.
They never quite saw eye to eye.

Photographer unknown
1920s cloche

Zita’s daughter and my grandmother, Dorothy’s hands. 2006

One relative recalls “unladylike activities” were often first accepted for safety, like riding astride in split skirts or breeches. After an incident with a relative who was riding sidesaddle when her horse spooked and drug her, hurting her badly, it was decided it was time for a change.

Photo: R.D. Louden family L to R: Willard, Dorothy, R.D., Richard & Zita. Just uphill from headquarters. 1938 or 1939 Photographer unknown

1940s - NY Creation label, Buccaneer hat - Size 23

The final wild rose of the season. Family says that Roy dug up a wild rose bush for Zita. This same bush has taken over that section of the yard at the ranch headquarters where they lived their entire married life.

1940s hat / On the ranch

One of Zita’s grandaughters
remembers her as a very sharp-witted, very intelligent woman. A grandson recalled, “She could cut you to the quick and you didn’t realize you were bleeding.”

Early 1940s WWII, R.D. & Zita Louden with their eldest son, Richard, in his Air Force uniform.
Photo taken in front of the ranch headquarters.
Photographer unknown

1940s straw hat

I know Zita started her notes to Roy with “Dearest” and signed them “Lots of love”.

Postcard postmarked April 6, 1940

One of Zita’s grandsons asked if I found the diamond ring that she hid around the house for safekeeping. Last known hiding spot was a flour sack. She’s been dead 37 years and the ring is still hidden.

A ring found in Zita’s belongings (We don’t believe it’s the ring she kept hidden).

She smelled of lilac and her favorite color was purple, lavender specifically.

A hand colored photo of Zita at their front gate, on the back is written “An Easter morning about 1948”. Photographer unknown
1950s Hat from the Denver Dry Goods Company Size 23

Told through mementos,

Zita’s flower pin on dried plants she kept from a trip to Hawaii.

She was raised in the era of white gloves and a nice hat and was a consummate hostess. The Rocky Ford paper included a write up of a “Hollowe’en” party a young Zita organized at the Christian church where “…all voted Miss Zita a pleasing hostess.”.

Johnson pasture landscape, Branson area.

1960s - home decorated hat

Once at a PTA meeting, which back in the day was a community function whether you had kids or not, a granddaughter remembers an argument between a couple. “Everybody was filing into the cafeteria to get dessert and coffee after the meeting and this couple was getting into it. Really kind of, snipping at each other. Then I heard Grandma Zita, "You know, some people should do their dirty laundry at home." You could hear a pin drop!”.

Photographer unknown
Doeskin Mushroom Hat Size 22 1960s

Self- portrait at my childhood home on the ranch, wearing a dress found amongst Zita’s belongings, 2019.

Genuine Velour Size 22 1/2 - 1960s

Family portrait. 2017 / Hat made in Italy 1960s

Some may think these two were an odd couple, but I am told that’s just how it was back then. Roy was small and funny, a man that spent most of his time in the wilderness and was known to ride into a pond and dip his hat in for a drink. Zita was sophisticated and liked the finer things in life. Whatever their differences, it worked and they carved out a life in the wilderness of Colorado.

Zita and Roy with the watch necklace she is wearing in the photograph. 1955

Gilstrap & Louden mailboxes on the ranch. From my childhood home they are 2.3 miles by road, but you can shave off a mile cutting through pastures. They are 3 miles from the ranch headquarters and by the road is the best route.

Zita’s perfume or poison ring

Convention badge found in a box of her travel keepsakes.

untitled image

Castilleja, commonly known as Indian paintbrush or prairie-fire, on Mesa de Maya during a good rain season. Zita wrote of a spring after being snowed in at the Tobe school for months. “It was the most beautiful spring I have ever seen. The grass was soon knee high, wild flowers bloomed everywhere, dozens of varieties, acres of Indian paint brush and Blue Beard tongue.” Frontier Times article March, 1981

Family stories,

untitled image

A grandson-in-law recalled one Christmas where there was a lot of snow on the ranch. Just south of the headquarters was a good sledding hill and the family decided to go make use of it.

“We could not get Grandma Zita off the sled so we could use it. She did about four or five runs, just screaming and hollering. She…We had a blast.”

At 85 years old, she was finding new ways to cut loose.

Photo R-L: Zita, her son-in-law, Jack, grandaughter, Janie with family friends on fall foliage trip on Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, 1970s.
Photographer unknown

Zita is wearing the jacket the photo is taken on.

Self-portrait in Zita’s mirror on the ranch.

Zita liked things just so and everyone knew it, to the point family would quickly remedy a disturbance so as not to alert her. Her grandson recalled the time he and his grandad found an unwelcome guest in the kitchen.

“He opened up the breadbox and there's a little rattlesnake in there. He killed it and he looked at me and said, “Don't you tell Zita!”.”

Zita’s mice pin and earring set in varying states of polishing.

100% Wool - Glenover - Henry Follar, Inc - NY 1950s

Zita’s purse with it’s packaging.

She traveled all over the world bringing back mementos to her home which is 17 miles out from a town that now has a population of 64 people. In the 1930s, the population was 237.

Zita’s earrings

Zita’s sister, Dot was considered a wild child in some respects. She “basically became a flapper”, embracing the roaring twenties and taking up smoking. In one relative’s recollections, Zita used the old saying “A rolling stone gathers no moss” to describe her sister. All the same, Zita named her only daughter, Dorothy, after her.

Dot’s painting hanging in the ranch headquarters.

And a place called, home.

A member of the family remembers Zita saying, “I’ve been all over the world and there are still places on this ranch I haven’t seen.”.

The view coming off the mesa during a storm.

Zita always said she was named after a European Empress. A family member remembers, “She was regal in her posture (bearing). I never experienced her tearing into anyone, but somehow she wasn’t one to be pushed around.”.

Necklace with a photo of Zita wearing it. 1970s

Photo of Zita and her grandson (my dad), Larry, at a wedding in the 70s, Photographer unknown / Glenfluffy by Glenoit 1960s

Zita drove fast. So fast that in those parts, folks would say the road would rollup behind her. A family member also recalls how about a yard into driving she would be switching out shoes, fixing the angle on the hat, trying on different clip-on earrings and it created an interesting ride. Zita’s driving was so well known that some said all the cows on those country roads knew her car and they would part like the Red Sea and just get off the road when they saw her coming. To this day that family member doesn’t know if that wasn’t the case.

1960s photo, Photographer unknown

Zita tended to do the majority of the driving. In fact, Roy was so used to her driving that one day, after driving himself to the post office, he jumped into the passenger seat and waited. And he waited. Finally he got impatient and said “Step on it Zita!”. At this point, he realized he was alone.

Zita’s earrings with a photo of her wearing them, Roy is coming in behind her. 1970s

Menu

About
Portraits
Preservation
Commercial
Blog
Contact

Contact

215 Chester Ave
Atlanta, GA 30316
Mail: k@kaylinngilstrap.com
Tel: 770-906-5066

Connect

© 2021 by Kaylinn Gilstrap. Web Design by Pixlrabbit.