daugher of 'Migrant Mother' (famous photo) cleans houses 6/7 days a wk at age 77

[Liberal_in_LA]

she's the child on the left



Daughter of 'Migrant Mother' proud of story

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, August 23, 2009

When she puts a hand to her face and her mind drifts into the past, Katherine McIntosh looks a lot like her mother.

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Shot in 1936 by Bay Area photographer Dorothea Lange, the photo, titled "Migrant Mother," now hangs in the Library of Congress. It was immortalized on a postage stamp and honored in 2008 when Lange was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

But how has the family in the frame fared?

All Thompson's children held jobs and maintained her tireless work ethic. A few, including a real estate agent and a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. supervisor, attained a degree of financial success.

But 73 years after Thompson's family became accidental poster children for hard times, the sting of poverty is not far at bay.

At age 77, McIntosh cleans houses six or seven days a week, after a full career working assembly lines at turkey processing plants and the graveyard shift at a Frito Lay factory. She lost her house in a fire a few years ago and cringes when she thinks of the money that's been made off her mother's image.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/200...

[valerief]

1. Them that's got shall get. Them that's not shall lose. In America, but not in civilized countries.nt

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Wilms]

4. Plenty of Americans do that kind of work.

But a migrant worker likely does it for less.

That's why Republicans like to hire them...despite the rhetoric.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[Wilms]

6. Want a trouble-free employee? Hire an "illegal".

Break rules all you want. What are they gonna do? Call OSHA?

And it's fine to say that "plenty of citizens here would love to make twenty bucks an hour" except for the context in which you've already acknowledged, "twenty bucks is still below what they would charge for an American to do it". If they have the bricklaying skills, and are American, they're either making more than twenty an hour, or they ain't working.

You can't have it both ways. (Only Republicans can. )

[Triana]

3. ...and what about the concept of "Morality" in the US?

How can a nation claim to be a moral one when it doesn't seem to even know what the word MEANS? Are we so much a nation of knuckle-draggers that we haven't figured it out yet? Apparently so.

[revolution breeze]

7. It just doesn't seem fair

Her image is included in that photo, and it is her story. It seems she should be entitled to some royalty or recompense of some sort. Of course that was so many years ago so I am sure there were no laws in place....

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. No, it doesn't seem fair. Maybe she could make some $$ from a memoir