The Lady and the Press

A dry cleaning/ laundry establishment in town has been decorated with some poster-sized historical photos, including this one. It's an interesting picture on its own merits. Why would this lovely lady in a formal with long white gloves be pressing pants? We have no answers.
Why do I care? Because the lovely lady is my wife's grandmother, who passed away sixteen years ago. It's a little unsettling to walk into a business and discover an image of a member of your family unexpectedly on prominent display.
Wouldn't you want to know more about this photo? What is its context? Was she posing for a business, a charity? It's clearly a formal photograph and it probably was published, but I've been unable to find anyone who seems to know where or why. I've spent a lot of time trying to track down its original purpose, but my wife and her mother just aren't that curious. They got copies of the photo, and they're content with it. I'm using clues. In the photo,she's obviously of a certain age. Her hair is snow white and her face shows tremendous life experience. The formal and the white gloves tell you something. She was in a wheelchair when we got married in 1987, so the picture was apparently taken some time in the early to mid-80's. That's about as far as I've been able to narrow it down so far.
This, of course, is making me nuts. How can they not want to know more about it? I guess it's my job to obsess about it. I will say that this lady was a wonderful woman. I knew her for six years before she left us, and I'm a better person for (Photos are courtesy of Brian Lewis. Visit the website.) it.
Now, if I can just figure out why she was pressing pants, I'll feel much better.
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Update: Daddy D has been advised that Mrs. Annan was on the board for Shreveport Opera, and this photo was made for an ad in the Opera's program. The dry cleaner/ laundry place used board members as models for their ads. We are still unclear on the timeframe.
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Another update: a note from my Mother-in-law: 1967 - it was in the Opera brochure - caption under picture was "why wash and swear? Call Azalea Cleaners". Boy, I missed the timeframe by a significant margin. -DR

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