BABY MONTANA
In the annals of Sathre-Wright-Brunelle family lore is the story of Gwendolyn Leone Sathre being selected as Baby Montana. This would have been somewhere around 1912 or 1913. Within the past couple of years (1994/1995) all of Gwen’s grandchildren have received a beautiful framed picture of Gwen as “Baby Montana”. I’m sure these will be treasured for many years to come and, over the next 40 or 50 years, could well be passed down to the next couple of generations. Therefore, there will be no messing around with the story as we know or don’t know it.
The purpose of this exercise is too bring everyone up to date on information that I recently found. This, as well as a whole lot of other family information, was not lost but merely filed away so well that every once in awhile something is “found”. In the instant case, a scrap book of articles and photo’s belonging to Andy and Laura Sathre- passed down to Cal and Gwen and then to Bev and I- was discovered in “Cal’s Cedar Chest”. In it were two newspaper clippings in regard to the baby contest. Unfortunately, there were no dates on these clippings.
The headline of the first article states: GWENDOLYN SATHRE JUMPS TO FIRST PLACE. The little tads are crowding each other hard for places in the Sexton Motion Picture Baby Contest, and the interest their friends are showing in the race is evidenced by the record of votes. Little Jack Mullen, who took first place the first night, was supplanted by Lucile Snyder on Wednesday night, while last night Gwendolyn Sathre jumped from sixth place to the top, passing both the Mullen and Snyder babies. It is nobody’s race yet. The vote up and including last night is as follows: Gwendolyn Sathre (1310); Lucile Snyder (1085); John Delaney Mullen (1025). [These three names are followed by 15 more with the vote count ranging from 815 down to 10. It then states that 10 new babies were entered yesterday and names them, finishing with Forrest Ferris and Denton Sheeks.]
The second article blares forth: GWENDOLYN SATHRE AND COMER TWINS ARE WINNERS. The Sexton Animated Baby contest for the most popular baby in Great Falls has been the chief topic of interest to Great Falls theater goers for the past several days and at the closing of the contest last night the friends of the different contestants flocked to the support of their favorites in a final effort to put them in the lead. Several babies made decided gains but the lead of the first two contenders was too great to be overcome and the final result showed that little Gwendolyn Sathre had carried off the first prize of $15 in gold, the Comer twins taking second honors. Each little twin will be presented with a solid gold locket and chain, with his name engraved thereon. The lockets have been secured from H. W. Benton, the jeweler, at 316 Central Avenue. The total vote as shown by the official recount is as follows: Gwendolyn Sathre (27,095); Comer Twins-Howard & Hubert (18,900); Edward Mills (11,975). [These three are followed by 23 more names with Denton Sheeks and Forrest Ferris only picking up about 250 votes.]
So that is what was found in the scrapbook. Gwen really smoked ‘em. With the articles in the scrapbook was a picture of the winner with a big bouquet of roses.
4 years ago • Notes