Early photographer set Standard in Lampasas

Lampasas County Courthouse.

Before Virgil Wooten there was Lucile Standard -- Janie Lucile Mauldin Standard, 1884-1966.

Mrs. Standard sold Wooten her second-floor photography studio in the 1940s and thus helped launch his career as one of Lampasas' bestknown photographers.

Although she sold her studio, Mrs. Standard did not stop taking photographs. She continued to run a photography business out of her home.

Photographs from her long career are on view through Oct. 27 at Keystone Square Museum in an exhibition organized by her granddaughter, Judy Smith.

Mrs. Standard's early interest and talent in painting is evident in her work as she applied her skill to tinting black-and-white photographs when that was fashionable.

Examples of the photographer's paintings are on display alongside tinted photographs in a case at the museum.

Mrs. Standard's wide range of subject matter is well represented in the show. She turned her camera lens on everything and everyone around her, from an early baptism in Hancock Park to the first horsedrawn fire wagon (dated 1918), and from the Lampasas polo team to her family members dressed in period costume.

Lucile Standard

Her husband, William Standard, was the only paid fireman in the Lampasas Fire Department in those days, and he played on the local polo team.

Mrs. Standard's son, Ted, studied leatherworking with Lampasas legend Ray Jones, and went on to open his own shop in Tennessee. There, he sold to Elvis and gained his own footnote in history.

Her photos can be viewed each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by appointment.

In addition, the museum's exhibition of "Lampasas Through Virgil Wooten's Camera Lens" has been extended through Oct. 27.

First horse-drawn fire wagon, circa 1918. Beauty pageant contestants.