James Vernon Dale Sr., 1968

This picture of my father, James Vernon Dale Sr., was taken - along with the picture of my mother below - in December 1968. My father was then 65 years old. I was in the U.S. Air Force at the time. They had the portraits made at Richmond's Caston Studio on Dec. 9 and framed and mailed them to me in time for Christmas. When the package arrived in my mailbox in Germany, I was totally convinced that my parents had sent me a book. On Christmas morning, I opened the package in my room at the NCOQ and was much happier than I would have been with any book they might have sent. I believe that this is the first formal portrait for which my father had sat since World War II. I believe the one below, of my mother, was the only formal portrait for which she ever sat.