The Wildermuth Family — Itazuke, Japan, 1968

The Wildermuth family of six in one frame — Robert Earl, Dorothy, and all four children — at Itazuke Air Base, Fukuoka, Japan circa 1968, the closing year of the family’s three-year Itazuke tour. The typed caption Robert Earl set beneath the print in the 1990 Heritage gives the line-up:

Left to right in back: Sandra Sue and Terrie Lee Wildermuth. In front: Debra Jean, Robert Earl Sr., Dorothy Marie (Davis) and Bobby Jr., circa 1968.

Terrie Lee (Chuck’s mother) and her older sister Sandra Sue stand behind their parents in the older-teen positions; Debra Jean and toddler Bobby Jr. flank Robert Earl and Dorothy in front. The pose is the deliberate family-of-six composition Robert Earl had been carrying with him through the Air Force postings.

What it documents

It is the Japan-tour family portrait — the document of who was in the Wildermuth household during the three Itazuke years (1965–1968) — and one of the rare frames in the archive that holds all four Wildermuth children together at one time. By the year of the print Terrie was finishing her high-school graduation in Japan and preparing for the move back to Ohio that would land her at Marietta College a year later, where she would meet Charlie Eesley.

The frame pairs with the parallel mid-1960s Wildermuth family portrait on Dottie’s page — the same six people, photographed two or three years apart on opposite sides of the Pacific.

Source: The Wildermuth/Fleming Heritage by Robert Earl Wildermuth, 1990 — Davis section.