Old Pictures

I'm up in SF now, staying with my Aunt Lucy, and we opened up some envelopes of old family stuff. They didn't come out so well, they'd have to be scanned, but these are some family pictures of the old man and his fam. My Dad and Grandfather, my Aunts Meg and Lucy, and my Grandmother Emeline. There's definitely a resemblance to my father I think. We also found the last letter home from my Great Uncle, William Hooper, (Killed In Action WWII) who I'm named after. Unfortunately, it's only the last page, but here it is....

"and pray that I'll do everything right by them always. That's something you can pray for too - that I will be given the power to make the right decisions and at the right time - because those times are coming and I believe it takes more than myself to do those things. As for myself, I have no fears or qualms. For those things which I in my life have enjoyed and for the wonderful life I have had the priviledge of living, my life would be a small thing to give up to insure you and Billy and millions of others continue to have the same. It would be an investment and not a loss. The only way to end this war is to fight it and that will be done. I'm very patriotic tonight you'll think, but I really always have been and feel these things very strongly. So if sometime when you look at the flag and the red seems a little redder (it always has seemed the deepest red to me) and the white a little whiter and the stars a little more distinct, and if I'm not there, just hold your head a little higher and be a little prouder. Because it's the only way we would have it, now isn't it?
I suppose, Dearest, every soldier writes a letter like this sometime home - maybe I shouldn't, but I feel this way, and if I didn't feel this way I wouldn't be worth enough to pay the insurance. Don't be alarmed - just read it, and don't for the Lord's sake cry 'cause you know I wouldn't like it!"