1932 Una Scanlan of Brownsville, Texas - Photo Study

 A photo investigation by Javier R. Garcia

The saying that "a picture can tell a thousand words" would be lost on this photograph without doing the necessary research and having some plain old good luck.  What follows will examine several details which will answer 1) who the young lady was 2) what kind of plane is she sitting on, 3) why is "Junita" written on the nose of the plane, 4) who does the plane belong to,  5) where was this photograph taken, and 6) who took the photograph?  We'll answer 2 and 4 to begin:

The original owner and pilot of the plane, we believe, was Sam D Baker who operated a small flying school and airplane sales business and chartered flights.  He may have been in McAllen or south Texas but we're not going to dig that deep.  The plane is a c1931 Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior which has a short-lived story all its own.  Let's continue....

Mr Baker sold the plane to a young Leslie Mauldin who you might have heard was a pilot instructor and engine mechanic instructor for the US Army in Texas and after WWI became a barnstormer for a few years before teaching pilots in Mexico how to fly and the Nicaraguan Air Force pilots how to fly.  By 1929 he was married and starting a family in Brownsville, Texas.  He got his start here as Brownsville's first municipal airport manager where he also taught flying courses. 

This is Etelka and Les Mauldin in McAllen, Texas with their only daughter in 1931.  She's also part of the history behind the photograph we are discussing.  If you take a closer look at the plane, it has "Junita" written on its nose.  This is the CW-1 Jr with a new paintjob made to look like the original craft once did.

Junie or "Junita" Mauldin on the back of her father's automobile in Brownsville, Texas.  Written on the spare-tire cover is sign that reads:  "Learn to fly in the new Curtiss-Wright Junior.  $100 - Eleven hours - Rides $1.  Les Mauldin - Brownsville Airport"  Junie lived in Torreon, Mexico her first year or two and was probably given the nickname of "Junita" by her Spanish-speaking babysitter when her father was teaching flying there but that's another story we might come back to in another post.  

By 1932 these ads started appearing in the Brownsville Herald as promotions for young people to get interested in aviation and contests.   Now we'll answer 5 & 6:  Where was the photo taken and by whom?  That will be followed by answering the first about Una Scanlan, the young lady in the photo.

The photo above which appeared in the Brownsville Herald shows the same plane with a group of young women including Una (second from top).  We can see the sig belongs to A. "Pat" Rogers who had his studio in Brownsville.  He is attributed with having taken several aerial photos of Brownsville with Mauldin's help of course and a few downtown photos we've seen posted on this blog.  The two men were at Boca Chica Beach the same day the Chamber of Commerce was there to promote the Del Mar beach resort as you can read in the caption below the image.  I'm working on more Les Mauldin stories so come back to the blog or search his name on this blog if you want to learn more about him.

Here's where some real luck comes to us.  A simple search of the uncommon name of "Una Scanlan of Brownsville, Texas" bought up a result from the genealogical webpage for the "Backus Family History" which tells us that Miss Una was born on August 6, 1913 in Brownsville, Texas and died on September 20, 1997 in San Antonio, Texas.  Her father was John Phillip Scanlan (b.1875 d.1939) and her mother was Una Jane Miller (b. 1875 d. 1949).  They were married in Brownsville in 1885.  

I was unable to find the year Una married Brigadier General Edward Nolen Backus (b. 1906 d.1973) but they had three children with one still living by 2014 when the record was last updated.

The earliest reference to her in the Brownsville Herald describes a Christmas recital at the Church of the Advent in 1924 when Una would have been about 11 years old.

Would you like to know more?  A cursory search of Brownsville Herald archives tell us Una performed costume dances on stage with her friends at the Capitol Theater organized by the then well-known dance school teacher Joe Crixell (son of the Marshal Joe Crixell who was assassinated in 1912).  To read a list of people she was associated with is to read a list of prominent families of the time whose names may still sound familiar to the local history buff.   There are a few Spanish surnames in there but only a few.  

1930 Brownsville High School photo.  Other Rio Grande Valley high schools also had their photos featured on the front page this year.

In 1931 she was part of a campaign ad for the "Booster Club" which had a full-page spread in the Herald listing stores participating and candidates and prizes they might win if they received the most votes at various stores.  During this era the newspaper had a "society page" to announce the going-ons of the who's-who of elite society and she was mentioned as having been a guest at a Bridge game (playing card game) and another instance describing event at the "Althea Tea Room" which was hosted by a relative, Ann Scanlan.  This breakfast party was to announce engagement of Miss Mary Brooks and William Trammel.  So as not to bore the reader, this is just a brief study.  

There can be no doubt she must have had an interesting life from here to her death in San Antonio, Texas in 1997.  Some of her descendants may read this and appreciate a brief look at her "15 minutes of fame" from the photo which was supposedly shared across the nation to promote our beautiful south Texas coast and beach resort of Del Mar before it was mostly destroyed by a hurricane in 1933 and succumbed to effects of the Great Depression.  Most people can only recall the "unspoiled" beaches of Boca Chica Beach (formerly called Del Mar Beach) and the few ghostly beach houses that stood alone and boarded up.  

If you have a photo mystery to solve and are on Facebook, seek out the Brownsville Station Facebook page (from Brownsville, Texas - not the rock band of same name) and share your photos with us.  You never know, someone might be able to identify aspects of it you didn't know.  

The original photo copied from Yooniq Images website which could no longer be retrieved.