Three Girls Having Fun

THREE GIRLS HAVING FUN IN THE 1930s

PHOTO OF LUCY ROBINSON, KATHLEEN HURT AND RUTH HURT

Kathleen Hurt would have been about 18 years old, having been born in 1915 and Ruth, the one sticking her tongue out, would have been about 10 years old. Lucy Robinson, the younger sister of the well-known local farmer Bill Robinson who owned Gooney Manor Farm, would have been in her early 20s. (FYI: A picture of Bill Robinson chatting with two friends in the O.J. Rudacille Store was featured in our 2025 calendar). 

WHAT’S GOING ON IN THIS PHOTO?

Based on a words written on the back of the photo, Kathleen was the owner of the car. It seems likely that she was enjoying showing off her brand-new car to her two younger neighbors. Kathleen and Ruth’s older brother Fred (William Frederick Hurt) built the house where the car is parked. Fred was married to Nannie Elizabeth (Williams) Hurt who most likely was the person taking this picture since she is known to have written the words on the back of the photo

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE LIVES OF THE THREE PEOPLE IN THIS PHOTO

THE TWO HURT SISTERS

Note: The following brief history of the Hurt family is based on an interview report in the Browntown Community Center Association Newsletter, July 2005 about the family of Nannie and Fred Hurt. The report was written by Anna Rae Rudacille, 

Kathleen and Ruth’s parents were Andrew Fullen Hurt and Eva (Jackson) Hurt. They moved to Browntown in 1922 from Tazewell in Southwestern Virginia by way of Missouri, Fullen had taken his family by train to Missouri in search of work and had remained there for about 10 years working on a farm. In 1909 their son, Fred, was born. He was apparently a precocious little boy and while in school went straight from grade 3 to grade 5.

After several years they decided to move back east. Fullen had seen a picture and description of some land in the Browntown area and decided to take a train to look at it. He looked at several tracts of land and bought 42 acres and a house on the Browntown/Bentonville Rd. He then went back to Missouri, picked up his family and their possessions and headed back to Virginia by train. The deed for their new property was signed March 30, 1922. This land would later be inherited by their son Fred.

(ESMOND) KATHLEEN HURT (1915 -1939)

Kathleen, was born to Andrew and Eva Hurt on February 26, 1915 in MO. Sadly, Kathleen died of tuberculosis in January, 1939, aged 23 and 10 months only a few years after this photo was taken. At that time she was still living at home with her parents.

RUTH LOREEN HURT (1922-2013)

Ruth was born in Browntown in 1922. She grew up in Browntown and married William “Peck” Cameron from Bentonville who died in early 2005. Ruth and William lived in Browntown for several years and three of their children, Sue, Pat, and Terry attended Browntown Elementary School. Later the family moved to Indiana.

LUCY ROBINSON (1909-1973)

Having been born in Fauquier County, VA in 1909, Lucy seems to have been quite unconventional and ambitious – after leaving school she studied in Washington DC at Strayers Business College and took the civil service exams. In April, 1928 a brief report in a local newspaper, the Front Royal Record, mentions the following: 

“From a letter from Miss Lucy Robinson of Browntown, written from Washington, D. C., to a friend in Front Royal, we learn that she has, after only six months training at Strayer’s Business College, secured employment and is now working during the day and attending night school, preparing herself to take the civil service examinations. Securing a position in such a short time speaks especially well for Miss Lucy, as she entered Strayer’s for a nine months course. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Robinson of Browntown.”

Lucy remained single until 1945 when she married Dr. Theodore Corson in Philadelphia. Lucy and Theodore continued to live in Philadelphia for the rest of their lives. She died at the grand old age of 99 in 2008, outliving Theodore who had died 35 years earlier in 1973.