"Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence."
----Tennessee Williams
It was in 2022 that I first touched on the legacy of famous photographer Olide Paul Schexnayder, the father of long-time Franklinton resident Winona Marie Schexnayder Magee, the wife of R. W. Magee. Before Olide and wife Martha Alice Vial Schexnayder in 1920 moved their family to Washington Parish, he had been a photographer, among other occupations, in South Louisiana.
Granddaughter Anita Magee Nicholson reflected, "O. P. Schexnayder died without knowing what an amazing contribution he made to the world of photography as he captured the people and their lives in pictures." He famously captured the infamous freezing of the Mississippi River in the winter of 1899. But what caught my eye was his portrait of his wife Martha Alice, Winona's mother, in what I refer to as a portrait dress, which brings me to the late Rusty Richardson Durand of Bogalusa.
Born in 1938, Rusty was the daughter of H. H. "Speed" Richardson and his wife Willie Mae Caldwell Richardson. Harry Hansbrough "H. H." Richardson was the son of James Poole Richardson and his wife Margana Mitchell Richardson. He and wife Willie Mae raised their daughter Rusty in Bogalusa, and she went on to graduate from Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans. Then, while living in our nation's capital, Rusty met her husband Tony Durand. The couple resided in New York City and then Houston where they raised their sons. Later, after Rusty's parents were gone, they moved to Bogalusa where they lived in her childhood home.
A world traveler, she and Tony traveled extensively in Europe and Russia. A favorite journey of Rusty's was from Southampton, England to New York City on the Queen Elizabeth 2, the Cunard flagship. What a trip that must have been! While my husband and I will be sailing out of Southampton (for Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, and France) later this year, we will not be on the QE2, more's the pity. The British ocean liner has been retired and converted into a floating hotel.
But back to Bogalusa, it was there that Rusty was very active in social and civic circles, serving as president of The Civic League. She was also a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Ingleside Book Club, the Golden Girls at the Bogalusa Country Club, and "Le Cher Amie" Mardi Gras Krewe. And it was around that time that I met Rusty at a party in Tchefuncte Club Estates, in the 1990s. It was a Delta Delta Delta shindig that we, both members, attended. A quarter of century apart in years, Rusty and I hitherto had not met. But our mothers had known one another, and then there was the matter of the dress.
As previously written, my first experience with photography - as the subject - was at the studio of revered photographers Josephine "Jo" Burris White, another Tri Delta, and husband Don of Bogalusa. It was adjacent to the White home at 703 Virginia Avenue where, as a child, I spent much time within their personal residence; my mother and Jo were close friends. She instructed Momma on the appropriate ages for pictures and portraits, in conjunction with the seven stages of childhood. Major portraits were to be done at ages four, which is purportedly the cutest age with individuality and personality, and sixteen, when childhood ends and adulthood begins to emerge. Teenage terror, too, but I always aimed to please my parents. Accordingly, we visited Ms. Jo in advance of the portrait sitting to discuss the details. And that was the day that she broached the dress.
Ms. Jo informed my mother that I could not sit for the portrait in just any dress, and certainly not a prom dress. My mother responded, "Where should we go look?" Ms. Jo replied, "I don't want you to buy it. I want you to borrow it." Apparently, the dress needed to be what I began to call a portrait dress, an antique white creation of intricate lace. And then Ms. Jo said to my mother, "Let's call Willie Mae. She has exactly what we need." I remember wondering, "Who's Willie Mae?"
She was Willie Mae Richardson, wife of Speed - a Bogalusa couple my folks knew well. And she produced the prettiest portrait dress I had ever seen. Of course, I had not glimpsed one theretofore. It had been her daughter Rusty's, and it fit me like a glove. Before I knew it, the oil portrait by Jo White was complete, and the dress was returned. But my memory remained, and I was always curious about the rightful owner of the dress - the Richardsons' daughter Rusty.
So, I didn't waste any time at the party at that big house, my friend Jane's, on the Tchefuncte River. I scurried right over to Rusty Richardson Durand to make her acquaintance. She was beautiful and affable, just how I had pictured her all those years before. And we talked about the portrait dress, her dress.
Rusty lamentably passed away in the spring of this year. Left to cherish her memory were her devoted husband of 55 years Tony Durand; her sons Lee Mitchell Durand and Jim Durand; her grandchildren Cameron, Shari, and Chase Durand; and her beloved dog Doxy. I'm grateful Rusty and I met, if only for a moment. My Tri Delta sister gave the pretty portrait dress context.
I had always wondered where Rusty was on the day I sat for the portrait, in her dress. I like to think that she was on the QE2.
