Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290362
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WOMAN IDENTIFIED IN RIP-HITLER PHOTO

Norwood C. Middleton, a Salem historian and retired newspaperman, has identified her as Mabel Loud.

Several people remembered Loud's last name when the other two women and a man in the picture were identified recently. Loud is the woman whose hat cast a shadow on her face.

The picture, published with a story about a history room being established at the funeral home, showed three women and a man standing behind seven caskets, one bearing the inscription, "Rest in Peace, Hitler."

Staff members found the picture while pulling relics out of the attic. The people in the picture were not identified, and that baffled J. Curtis Storey, manager of the funeral home. He also wanted to know why the picture was taken.

The picture apparently was taken when the funeral home donated metal caskets to a scrap metal drive during World War II, according to Mildred Sowers, whose mother, Effie Reynolds, was in the picture. Sowers said she remembers her mother talking about the picture.

Middleton said that when someone identified the woman as being the wife of Ed H. Loud, he remembered that Ed Loud's wife's name was Mabel.

Others in the picture have been identified as Florence Carper and George Wood.