This photograph is perhaps the only surviving photograph that places Richard’s father Buck and his mother Gertrude in the same frame. It dates from the short window in their lives when they worked together at the Famous Door, the Pryor family tavern.

The tavern opened on North Adams Street around 1945. By the end of December 1945, Gertrude had left Buck and the Pryor family  — and taken her five-year-old son Richard with her.

(Top row) Unidentified woman, unidentified man, Marie Pryor, Richard “Dickie” Carter, LeRoy “Buck” Pryor; (bottom row) Gertrude Pryor, Dee Pryor. Interior of The Famous Door.