Page 24 – LIFE

The Joys of Minnesota Ice Fishing

December 11, 2023 by Bill Syken

Ice fishing is, if nothing else, a way to get out of the house during a long winter. In 1962 LIFE magazine photographer Robert W. Kelley traveled to the small Minnesota town of Glenwood—located on the shores of Lake Minnewaska, about halfway between Fargo, N.D. and Minneapolis—to capture people engaged in a classic northern pastime.

Ice fishers drop their lines through holes cut or drilled through a frozen-over lake. They can either sit outside and wait for a bite, or they can hunker in the relative comfort of an ice shack that they have hauled out onto the lake. One of the more distinctive photos in Kelley’s set is an overhead shot from inside a fishing shack in which a family is playing cards around a table and appears to be enjoying a cozy night in a living room—until you notice the rectangular fishing holes cut through the carpet and into the ice beneath.

Perhaps Kelley’s most inventive shot appears to have shot up through the ice as a fish is caught on a spear, with the delighted fishers visible in the background.

Kelley’s pictures also contains what would surely be a candidate for the most “Minnesota” photo ever taken—it shows people playing hockey on a lake with an ice-fishing camp in the background. (The image would be even more Minnesotan if one of the players was revealed to be a young Bob Dylan, which is not entirely implausible: the native of Hibbing is said to have both fished and played hockey in his youth.)

An ice hockey game by a fishing camp is a distraction from a distraction. Fair enough. To get through a long winter you need all the help you can get.

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An ice shack is hauled onto a lake during ice fishing season in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A child ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People playing ice hockey at an ice fishing camp in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Laughing With the Stars

December 5, 2023 by Bill Syken

Laughing is good for you, something of which it never hurts to be reminded. (Truly, laughter does help: if you don’t believe it, ask the Mayo Clinic.) With that spirit in mind we present this collection of notable figures in history enjoying a few hearty chuckles and/or guffaws.

There’s all kinds of laughter here, in situations expected and unexpected. In one photo Bob Hope cracks up a few of his fellow entertainers, and himself, as he tries out material before hosting the Academy Awards. But you also see general Douglas MacArthur cackling with glee the day after the successful invasion of Inchon. Whatever prompted MacArthur’s laughter in that moment, the relief following the previous day’s assault had to have been a factor.

Humphrey Bogart laughs more gleefully in a photo from the set of The African Queen than he was known to do when playing any of his memorably hard-bitten characters. Frank Sinatra, while hanging out with friends in a Miami hotel room, laughs so hard at a joke told by his pal and opening act Joe E. Lewis that the singer was literally rolling on floor laughing.

One of the more frequent celebrity laughers in the LIFE archives is Sophia Loren, represented here with three photos. No small part of the icon’s appeal is that, among her other virtues, she seemed to enjoy where life had taken her.

Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope and David Niven laughed at a Cold War-era Russian joke from Hope during a break from rehearsals for Academy Awards show at the RKO Pantages theater, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Singer Billy Eckstine (right) having some backstage laughs with his ex-boss, orchestra leader Earl Hines (center) and trumpeter Louis Armstrong backstage, 1949.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Warren Beatty with Natalie Wood at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Broadway producer Kermit Bloomgarden with Marilyn Monroe in her Manhattan apartment, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Humphrey Bogart laughed while on location for the filming of The African Queen along the Ruki River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1951.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

(left to right) George Jessel, Dean Martin, and Jack Benny at a Friars Club dinner for Dean Martin, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elton John (right) sharing a laugh with his mother Shelia (left) and stepfather Fred Fairebrother (center) in their apartment, 1971.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lyndon B. Johnson (left) and running mate Hubert Humphrey enjoying a laugh at Johnson’s ranch after their landslide victory in the 1964 presidential election.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

General Douglas MacArthur (center), slapped Vice Admiral Struble (left) on the knee while laughing gleefully the day after the invasion of Inchon, 1950.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy played with their children, April 30, 1957.

Paul Schutzer/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren with her husband Carlo Ponti on a boating trip off of Naples, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren laughing while exchanging jokes during lunch break on a movie set, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren laughed about her guitar-playing ability with her secretary Ines Bruscia beside her, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Clark on his TV show the “American Bandstand” in 1958.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

American generals George S. Patton (left) and Omar Bradley (center) and British general Bernard Law Montgomery (right) laughed while discussing strategy and the progress of the campaign in France, July 7, 1944.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. laughed over dinner with his wife, Swedish actress May Britt.

Leonard McCombe/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rolling Stone band members Mick Jagger (left) and Keith Richards shared a laugh.

DMI

Nancy Reagan and her husband, then California Governor Ronald Reagan, walked behind Dean Martin and Phyllis Diller, California, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rare laugh from somber Kim Novak greeted a joke by Otto Preminger, who visited Kim while she was in New York. She had great fondness and respect for Preminger, who directed her in The Man With the Golden Arm and put her genuinely at ease.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Alan Shepard laughs with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom (right) and Deke Slayton upon his arrival at Grand Bahama Island, shortly after his successful flight and splashdown, May 1961.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Belafonte laughed during Bop City nightclub’s opening night, 1949.

Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In a Miami hotel room Frank Sinatra fell off his chair howling at a joke told by his opening act and longtime friend, comedian Joe E. Lewis, 1965.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Meet Marge Sutton, LIFE’s Ultimate Housewife

November 29, 2023 by Bill Syken

LIFE devoted its issue of Dec. 24, 1956 to The American Woman: Her Achievements and Troubles. Some of the many topics covered in the issue included: giving birth for the first time, the trials of widowhood, and a 13-year-old tomboy’s transition to traditionally feminine fashion. Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote a piece for the issue tracing the spirit of American women to the hardships of the frontier days. This is but a sampling.

LIFE also had a big story on Marjorie Sutton of Los Angeles. Sutton was a 32-year-old mother of four with an amazingly busy life. Sutton married her husband George when both were in high school—he was 17, she was 16. He worked at his father’s Ford agency, while she had four children and handed the home duties.

In the photo captions in the LIFE archives, Sutton is repeatedly described as the “ideal housewife,” suggesting that was the guiding idea behind the assignment. Though if that’s the case, the magazine’s editors reeled in their assessment a tad before going to press, simply headlining the piece, “Busy Wife’s Achievements.”

However you describe her, the list of activities that Sutton had the time, energy and aptitude for suggest she was some kind of Superwoman:

She is a sponsor of the Campfire Girls, serves on PTA committees, helps raise funds for Centinela Hospitals and Goodwill Industries, sings in the choir at Hollywood’s First Presbyterian, and inevitably is drawn into many of her husband’s civic interests. But Marge Sutton thinks of herself primarily as a housewife and, having stepped from high school into marriage, has made a career out of running her home briskly as well. She does much of the cooking, makes clothes for her four children (ages 6-14) and for herself and, as a hostess, she entertains an endless stream of guests—1,500 a year, she estimates.

If it all sounds a little improbable, it should be noted that Marge did have had a maid helping out. Still, the photos by LIFE’s Ralph Crane show a woman with her hands full. Sutton is seen driving the carpool, shopping for groceries, sewing her children’s clothes, singing in the choir and also serving on the church decorations committee, in addition to caring for her four children and also the family dog.

One photo laden with symbolism shows her driving the family’s 1921 Model T Ford, which the Suttons apparently owned for kicks (Marge is seen driving a regular sedan in the carpool shots). In the Model T, Marge is the one with her hands on the wheel, while her family is either in the seats or standing on the car’s running boards. “She’d be a racer if I let her,” husband George told LIFE.

The most atypical photo of Sutton is one which did not run in the magazine. This picture shows her at night, floating in the pool behind her house, all by herself. It’s the one photo which suggests she might ever grow tired or need a few moments alone.

Marge Sutton, star of a 1956 LIFE story on the ideal housewife.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove a 1921 Model T Ford with son Gart beside her, daughter Christie in back, and husband George and children Marshall and Lolly on the running boards, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with husband George, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with son and dog, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove the high school carpool, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, star of LIFE story on the ideal housewife, shopping for groceries, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pinned the hem of her daughter Christies’ dress while her daughter Sally watched, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with her son in their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton helped her daughter Sally with her homework, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton talked about PTA business on the phone while removing a shirt from her son Gart, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton cleaned her son Gart’s fingernails on a Saturday night, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, wearing a dress she made herself, has a bracelet fastened by husband George as they prepare to go out, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sings in her church choir, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, the decorations chairman at her church, worked on the main altar, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pledged allegiance with her son’s Cub Scout pack, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family dined out at a buffet, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family read the Sunday comics, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her four children enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and husband George enjoy their time on the tennis court, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton attended her twice-weekly trampoline session with instructor Joe Smith at the YMCA in Inglewood, California. LIFE wrote in 1956 that Sutton’s interest in the trampoline “started during a `slim and trim’ class which she took at the Y to help preserve her size 12 figure.”

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton decorates the Christmas tree, a 16-foot fir that the family cut itself in the San Bernardino Mountains, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and family decorated their Christmas tree, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sews and sits with her husband by the fire, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton enjoyed a late night swim at her Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cheer Amid Wartime: Santa Visits Guadalcanal

November 22, 2023 by Bill Syken

The Allies’ first land campaign in the Pacific during World War II took place at Guadalcanal. The siege, led by U.S. Marines but involving every branch of the military, began on Aug. 7, 1942 and continued for about six months, until Japanese forces abandoned the island on Feb. 3, 1943.

Guadalcanal was an important early win for the Allies in World War II, but victory came at a high cost; 1,592 Americans were killed in action, another 4,183 were wounded and many more suffered from tropical diseases. On the Japanese side the toll was even greater, with 14,800 killed in action.

In Guadancanal, war was indeed hell. It’s something to keep in mind when viewing these photos of the joyful Christmas celebrations that the troops were able to muster on that remote and battle-torn island.

The pictures shot by LIFE staff photographer Ralph Morse ran in LIFE’s issue of March 1, 1943, when the campaign was over. The photos were part of a much larger story that was built around an excerpt from a book that would become a classic of war reporting, Guadalcanal Diary.

The Guadalcanal Christmas featured touches that American soldiers would have found familiar. A chaplain led midnight mass, a choir performed songs, and the troops were served a holiday meal that included turkey and pie.

Of course there were differences too. Santa was walking around in shorts because they were in the tropics and it was 90 degrees out. He wore a military helmet instead of a red stocking cap. The presents he distributed were provided by the Red Cross. The only family these soldiers could be with was the found family they had made with each other.

And if the energy in the photos is any indication, they were grateful for all of it.

American soldiers celebrating Christmas in Guadalcanal, 1942; one soldier held a sign with a message for Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Claus, wearing red shorts on a 90 degree day, visited a field hospital during the Guadalcanal campaign, 1942. He toured hospitals around the island in a Chevrolet captured from Japanese forces and gave out presents supplied by the Red Cross.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soldiers prepared turkeys to be cooked for a Christmas meal during the Guadalcanal campaign, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

U.S. soldiers cut up mince pies in preparation for a Christmas celebration in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A church flag flew above the stars and stripes during Christmas celebrations for the American forces in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

American soldiers celebrated midnight mass on Christmas eve in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A choir sang on Christmas eve in Guadalcanal, 1942; this group toured the island with Santa to perform for soldiers during the holiday.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection Shutterstock

The Glamour of Vintage Miami

November 17, 2023 by Bill Syken

Miami was for LIFE, like it was for many American vacationers, a place to return to again and again.

Sometimes LIFE photographers went to Miami because they were following the stars. It was a place to catch Frank Sinatra goofing around with this pals, or the Beatles on tour, or Muhammad Ali celebrating with Malcolm X after winning the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston.

In one case Miami was even a backdrop to history, when the U.S Army was using the famed beach as a training camp.

But more often LIFE photographers went to Miami to showcase Americans enjoying a certain kind of leisure—the kind with fancy hotels and swimsuits and glitzy shows.

Many of the images in this collection come from a 1940 shoot by legendary LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstadt that chronicled the beginning of boom times for Miami. Here’s what LIFE had to say in its March 4, 1940 issue about Miami becoming a magnet for the leisure class:

In 1912 Miami was a sleepy town of 7,500 people and Miami Beach, three and a half miles away across a tidal lagoon, was an untidy sand bar populated primarily by crabs and mosquitos. In that year an enterprising young Indiana automobile millionaire named Carl Fischer descended on the town and, with the assistance of two elephants, Nero and Rosie, began turning it into a winter resort. Miami and Miami Beach have been booming ever since. Currently Miami has a population of about 140,000 and Miami Beach of 20,000. The two are easily the No. 1 playground of the world’s most playful nation.

Of course Miami and Miami Beach had even more growth ahead, as captured in the photos LIFE took in succeeding years. Today the populations for Miami and Miami Beach have ballooned to around 439,000 and 80,000. And that mirrors the growth of Florida as a whole. In 1940 Florida was only the 27th most populous state in America, coming in right behind West Virginia and South Carolina. Today Florida ranks 3rd in the country in population, trailing only Florida and Texas.

Many forces contributed to that population growth, including immigration, but the promise of the kind of life that Eisenstaedt captured in his photos was surely was a psychological magnet to the retirees who came to Miami and to the rest of the state to spend their retirement years among the palm trees.

Miami Beach, Florida, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

A doorman and a row of bellhops at the entrance of Surf Club in Miami, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Miami resort, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami Beach fashions, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kayakers in a resort pool, Miami Beach, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People sightseeing in Miami Beach, Florida, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami Beach, Florida, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami Beach fashions, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami juice stand, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami Beach, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami Beach during a cold spell, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jai alai, Miami, 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Recruits trained for war in Miami Beach, 1942.

Myron Davis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Soliders in training took an ocean swim, Miami Beach, 1942.

William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Miami, 1944.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, on vacation in Miami Beach, 1955.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Miami nightclub, 1959.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Miami nightlub dancer in her off time, 1959.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Miami nightclub dancer at home, 1959.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miami, 1959.

Hank Walker/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A windjamming tour from Miami, 1961.

Michael Rougier/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali (right) posed at a soda fountain for Malcolm X (left, with camera) in Miami after winning the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston, 1964.

(c) Bob Gomel / Courtesy of Bob Gomel

The Beatles running on the beach in Miami, February 1964.

©Bob Gomel

Tony Bennett was out with Frank Sinatra after a performance in Miami, 1965.

John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Face of a Fighter: A Special Pearl Harbor Story

November 14, 2023 by Bill Syken

In 1961 LIFE magazine decided to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by focussing not on how it changed the world, but how it altered the life of one man.

Harold Lumbert was a civilian living thousands of miles away when Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was 21 years old and working on an assembly line in Aurora, Illinois. He had been married for eight months and his wife Burnette was pregnant with their first child, a son named David.

But Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II, and eventually Lumbert into the Marines, by way of the draft. He was shipped overseas in November 1944. And he became one of 670,846 Americans who were wounded during the war.

During fighting at Iwo Jima, he was hit by a Japanese shell that tore away the flesh at the front of his skull, broke his lower jaw in seven places and also ripped the nerves at the base of his neck. He was sure he was about to die, and he wondered to himself, “How is Burnette going to bring up the kid?”

Lumbert didn’t die, but he would stay in hospitals into 1947, enduring 33 major operations and countless smaller procedures, in an effort to put his face back together.

As one operation followed another, with painful missteps along the way, Lumbert became increasingly worried about what he looked like—and he had no idea, not only because he was bandaged but also because, to his great frustration, the hospital staff kept him away from mirrors. Finally, in the office of the dentist who had been working on his jaw, with his bandages off, Lumbert slid down in the chair to get a look at himself in the reflection of the metal instrument tray. The dentist, seeing what he was doing, relented and gave Lumbert a proper mirror:

The doctor watched and said nothing while Lumbert stared into the mirror at an apparition that was mostly a hole from the sockets of its burning eyes down. The remaining flesh hung shapeless because there was no longer an upper jaw nor much of the front of the skull to support it. A framework of aluminum bars was fastened to the skull with screws and looped down to give some kind of alignment to the fragments of the lower jaw. The sight, the doctor knew, could destroy a man; he prayed that it would not destroy this one.

Lumbert’s face was rebuilt, and so too, slowly, was his life. He eventually returned to Aurora and his job on the assembly line. Lumbert had feared his wife would leave him, given his disfigurement, but Burnette stayed by his side, and their family grew. They would have three more children, though in a tragic accident their first-born, David, died in 1953, at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.

LIFE devoted 18 pages to Lumbert’s story. The photographs, taken by George Silk, show Lumbert with his wife and three daughters, and with friends, partaking in the satisfactions of everyday life. What SIlk’s photographs do not show, however, is Lumbert’s face. Silk photographed Lumbert from behind or over the shoulder, or with Lumbert’s face in the shadows.

The choice not to show Lumbert’s face is a powerful one because of what Silk does capture in abundance: the friends and family who are enjoying Lumbert’s company. Especially when Lumbert is with his daughters, their eyes are looking at him with love.

In the story Lumbert talked about how he enjoyed the company of his daughter’s friends, because kids had an easier time with his appearance. “If you grab the chance, you can make a friend out of a youngster before she knows what’s happening,” Lumbert explained. “Once that’s done, she thinks of you as a friend and it won’t even occur to her that you look different from anybody else.”

It’s the real message of Silk’s photos: how Lumbert looks matters less than how the people in his life see him. That message is brought home by the story’s closing lines:

By now Lumbert fully understands the special vision which allows children to see beyond the face of a man. As he watches his daughters happily shuffle through the family album and talk about the photographs of their father as he was long ago, he knows that they know that the two faces belong to the same man.

Harold Lumbert and wife Burnette with their son David, before Lumbert deployed to the Pacific in World War II.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marine Private Harold Lumbert on his last leave in 1944 before he deployed to the Pacific in World War II.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

$David Lumbert, son of World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, at age 5. David died in 1953 at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.$

David Lumbert, son of World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, at age 5. David died in 1953 at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert operated a fork lift at work in Aurora, Illinois, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with daughter Joann, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert consoled his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joann Lumbert gets help with homework from her father, World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert held the hand of his daughter Sue just before her bedtime, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert and his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert played with his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert drove with his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert said grace with his wife Burnette and his three daughters (left to right): Patricia Ann (14), wife Bernadette, Virginia Sue (5), and, mostly hidden by her father, Joann May (11).

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with his three daughters, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert talked with a neighbor, George Glass, with whom he felt at ease, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert and his family hosted a dance party in their home, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harold Lumbert with his daughter Joann Lumbert (right) as she and a friend ride a go-kart, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert walked with wife Bernadette and daughters Sue and Patricia, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Laughing With the Stars

Meet Marge Sutton, LIFE’s Ultimate Housewife

Cheer Amid Wartime: Santa Visits Guadalcanal

The Glamour of Vintage Miami

Face of a Fighter: A Special Pearl Harbor Story

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The Mona Lisa’s One and Only Visit to America

Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World

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