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What’s in a name— Dale Chase is, alas, a pseudonym. As real as Dale feels, there remains the name given at birth, the one long in place and associated with everyday life—Karen. While Dale does the writing and enjoys the camaraderie of her fellow scribes, she’s not the one earning a living, cleaning the house, or mowing the lawns. Everyday tasks belong to Karen. She is also the artist and in that realm stands equal to Dale. It’s rather exciting to have two distinct personas. When Dale was invented, Karen had no idea the split would become so pronounced and she is somewhat awed but very pleased that her writing persona has assumed the larger part of her inner self. As if it wasn’t enough being Dale and Karen, there are various surnames for Karen since marriage can change a woman’s name. The current name, acquired in a second marriage, is Thomas, thus the later art projects are signed Karen Thomas or the KT she lately prefers. |
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Dale’s Studio |
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"Be with me, words, a little longer; you have given me my quitclaim in the sun, sealed shut my adolescent wounds, made light of grownup troubles, turned to my advantage what in most lives would be pure deficit, and formed, of those I loved, more solid ghosts." John Updike, 2008 (among the last poems before he died) |
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All in all Karen would rather be Dale but then she’d rather be a cowboy too. |
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Karen is a direct descendant of Henry Trailor who, along with his two brothers William and Archibald, stood trial for murder in Springfield, Illinois in 1841 with Abraham Lincoln, family friend, as lawyer for the defense. The trial caused such a sensation in Springfield that Lincoln wrote a letter to his friend Joshua Speed about it. Descriptions make it sound the equivalent of our O. J. Simpson trial and the uproar continued until it was learned the victim was still alive. Details of what actually happened and how things managed to get so out of hand have never been made clear. Lincoln was so troubled by the fact that a trial could proceed so far without a body that five years later he wrote an article about it for the Quincy Whig newspaper. Both that article and his letter to Speed survive in the Lincoln Archives. The Trailor trial is also mentioned in most Lincoln biographies. |
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Karen is also descended (maternal side) from one Charles Hartung, her great uncle, who was a genuine cowboy in Wyoming and worked for Buffalo Bill Cody. There is a small Charles Hartung archive at the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum in Cody, Wyoming. It includes a group photo of a Buffalo Bill hunting expedition in 1901 where Uncle Charlie served as guide. Cody signed the picture. |
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Before Karen Thomas it was Karen Boyte (first marriage) which for writing and art became K. P. Boyte. Initials were used because she was writing for motorcycle magazines at a time when readers didn’t seem to want a woman writing for them. (Cycle World once published a travel piece by a woman and an editor’s note practically apologized for doing so.) Art produced during those early years also bears the K. P. Boyte signature. Before Boyte, she was Karen Trailor, her birth name. The earliest drawings are signed Trailor. While growing up Karen disliked having a name that was also an object but adulthood brought enlightenment and she now treasures the Trailor name, mainly because of the Lincoln connection. |
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Charlie is seated second from left, in black hat. White bearded Cody stands in the group at right. |
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Charles Hartung (Horse unknown) |