A 1942-1943 Beauty Culture Operator’s License issued by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to Kathryn E. Dietrich (1915-2003), originally of Specktown, Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, with expiration date of January 31, 1943.
During the depression, Kathryn left Dauphin County and went to Lansdowne, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where she resided with her great uncle and aunt, Walter Evitts and Mabel [Riegle] Evitts, while attending the Modernella School of Beauty Culture, located in Philadelphia, near 69th Street. After graduating, she was certified as a Beauty Culture Operator, and practiced her craft at a beauty shop in Philadelphia while continuing to live with her great uncle and great aunt. There being a lack of beauty shop business during the war years, she traveled by train to Atlantic City on weekends and joined her cousin Hannah [Riegle] McMillan (1904-1977) working there as a waitress at the Morton Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. In the summer, between shifts at the hotel, she spent time on the Pennsylvania Avenue beach, where she met her future husband.
What is interesting about this particular operator’s license, is that it covers the period where she married in August 1942, and officially moved to Atlantic City. Kathryn never applied for a New Jersey license and never officially practiced her craft outside of Pennsylvania. Thus, the license pictured represents her last certification as a beautician.
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