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Ann Long Didsbury Age 16
Photo courtesy of, Roger Curnutt, Las Vegas, Nevada |
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“Wetting of the portrait”
Compiled by, Roger Lee Curnutt, September 2005
“The family feels that the accompanying portrait of, Ann Long Didsbury was painted in Salt Lake City when Ann was 16, or about 1865. Ann was married for the first time in 1858 to Daniel Allen, so perhaps this was painted before her wedding.
In 1865, Ann married Henry Willard Brizzee. Their Family, consisting of Henry, Ann and five children, were called in 1878 by the LDS Church to assist in the colonization of the Lehi Valley in Mesa.
During the trek to Arizona while the Brizzee wagons were crossing the Colorado river at Lee’s Ferry, one wagon tipped over and many of their possessions, this portrait included, began to float away. The painting became soaked, but was saved and dried out. Henry rolled the painting in parchment paper where it remained until 1915 at which time Lorana Brizzee Robertson (Ann’s daughter) took the portrait for framing in Phoenix.
The original portrait hung in Lorana’s Mesa home until her death in 1956, and has been in the possession of Ann Robertson Curnutt, Lorana’s daughter, since then.
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Ann Long Didsbury Certificate of birth courtesy of, Roger Curnutt, Las Vegas, Nevada |