On Wednesday, October 26, 1938, according to John Vachon’s personal letters published in John Vachon’s America, the Farm Security Administration photographer, then 24 years old, drove 60 miles west from Lincoln, Nebraska, to York, Nebraska, probably on what is now called Route 34. He would likely have left early in the morning, because he had an appointment in the afternoon to photograph a meeting of farmers in York. Thirteen of Vachon’s photos taken on that day in York are posted on the Library of Congress website.

On his way, he would have passed through the Seward County town of Utica. About five miles north of town, on a dirt road, Jake and Anges Abele lived on their farm with 10-year-old daughter, Eunice Claudine. We can speculate that Vachon made an impulsive decision to wander some back roads to look for a few interesting shots of farm life. On one of those roads, he saw a young girl, perhaps getting ready to walk to school. He jumped out of his car, toting his Graflex Speed Graphic 35mm camera, and asked her to pose for a picture. He may have asked her parents. No one knows, because the girl, 70 years later, doesn’t remember, and the now-deceased parents never mentioned it.

Eunice Claudine Abele was born August 13, 1928, in Seward County, Nebraska. She was the only child of Jacob and Agnes Abele. Jacob was born in Seward County in 1898, to Gotlieb and Louise Abele. He married Agnes Bohnen in 1921. She was born in Nebraska in 1903, to John and Emma Bohnen. Agnes died in 1963, and Jacob died in 1980.

Known all her life by her middle name (the 1930 census lists her as E. Claudine Abele), Claudine married Gerald in 1948, and had two children, Gary and Roger. Several years later, she took over the farm, and then passed it on to Roger after retiring from farm life.

Claudine kept a diary as a child, but there are only several entries for October of 1938. Two days after Vachon took the now iconic photo, she wrote, “Warm. Dad finished hand picking corn today.”