Louise Cowell, 1942

“My mother and I, and this well may go for all the kids, didn’t talk a lot about real personal matters. I don’t resent it, but I don’t know why this is. There’s something in her background that prevents her from opening up. ‘What’s going on? What’s happening with life?’ There’s this log jam of feeling in her that she doesn’t explain. I don’t think it’s necessarily a conscious avoidance of putting into letters newsy, gossipy kinds of things. She just doesn’t even think about doing it. She’s not a socializing-type person.

But as far as Mom’s ability to communicate through writing, she has beautiful handwriting, a very good vocabulary, but she never says anything! She says, ‘I love you,’ or ‘I’m sorry we haven’t written. Everything’s fine,’ or ‘We miss you… Everything will turn out’ blah, blah, blah...

We never spoke about her childhood. Aside from the fact she grew up in my grandfather’s house, with my aunts and my grandma, in Philadelphia. And that she was extremely successful in high school. The head of everything. Jesus! I read her yearbook. She was president of this and president of that. And had a straight ‘A’ average. Her big disappointment was that she had one ‘B’ in three years of high school! She’s an extremely intelligent person. But she masks it.

She had a great deal of potential. And then—I don’t know— something intervened. At some point, it seems like she shied away. I can remember her having some resentment that there was only one scholarship offered in her school, and the richest girl got it. Of course, my mom didn’t have enough money to go to school. Even years later, I detected a strong sorrow in her voice when she told me about it.

I have to tell you. These kinds of innocuous admissions about observations of my mother and not communicating in a way that was satisfactory for me… I’ve really never discussed this with anyone before. Maybe there’s never been an occasion for it. But you’d think there would have been an occasion for it, wouldn’t you?”
--Ted to Stephen Michaud, January 1980
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This is Louise's high school yearbook entry in 1942. She seemed very social, studious, and motivated. I can identify some of the activities she was involved with:

"Pirates of Penzance" is a Gilbert and Sullivan musical, appears she was in her high school production

"What a Life" is a 1938 play, appears she was also in this production

"The Show Off" is another play put on by the school

Diamond Club is a baseball booster club

"Ridge Record" was the student newspaper

"Girls' AA" was the student athletic association (for females)

A "Book Room" is "a shared space for books in a school. The bookroom can create a “revolving” collection to engage students in reading and provide extra instructional materials"

Honor Roll is an honor for those with at least one semester of high grades

"Study Hall Aide" is someone who supervised the study hall, a quiet space dedicated to studying

Dance Committee was responsible for planning and organizing the school dances such as prom

Honor Society is a club for students with exceptionally high grade point averages