Recovered Beck/Ray family-history image source — May 15, 2011. Barbara Beach sent these scans because Danielle was collecting family history.
The five surviving scrapbook scans are: Indio stuff 1.jpg, indio stuff #2 (2).jpg, Indio stuff.jpg, Indio stuff 002.jpg, and Indio stuff 003.jpg.
Recovered contents
- Ellen Claudine Ray and John F. Beck wedding material: portrait and newspaper clippings announcing Ellen as a March 10 bride, identifying her parents as Mrs. Ellen J. Ray and the late Dr. Claude F. Ray, and John as the son of Mr. and Mrs. August C. Beck.
- Formal wedding invitation: marriage of Ellen Claudine Ray and John F. Beck at Our Lady of Solitude Church in Palm Springs, followed by a buffet luncheon at Beck’s Date Gardens, sixteen miles east of Palm Springs.
- Beck / Sun Ray ranch material: clippings about John’s date-growing work and the new desert ranch house, including its swimming pool and other property details.
- William Ray Beck birth notice: a clipping headed “William Ray Beck Is Newest Arrival!” says he was born on a Friday, December 6, weighed nine pounds, and was the first child of John and Ellen Beck.
- Ray-family obituary material: a “Rites Monday for Mrs. Barker” clipping includes Ray-family relationships and Coachella Valley history.
- Palm Springs / Indio social history: Racquet Club, Loretta Young, Ripple’s Date Gardens, birthday-party, and “Purely Personal” clippings.
- Photographs: wedding image, family/group images, a swimming-pool image, and a Beck Date Gardens wagon/sign photograph with a handwritten date that appears to read 1934.
These scrapbook pages connect directly to the later Sun Ray Ranch photo batch preserved in #4346.
Status: all five Indio/Palm Springs scrapbook scans have now been reviewed and inventoried. Ambiguous handwriting and unlabeled people remain unresolved rather than guessed.
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