| Biography/History: |
ROYE Photography Studio, Roy E. Phelps, photographer Roy Earl Phelps was born in Medina, Michigan on 13 May 1878 to Ellen Grinnell Earl (1848-1935) and Charles Leland Phelps (1844-1917). He was the second of four children. On 14 April 1907, Roy married Lilly Martin (1886-1977) in Ainsworth, Nebraska. The whereabouts of the young couple between 1907 and 1914 is not known, but they show up in the 1915 Spokane City Directory at S 11 Cedar Street, where Roy is listed as a photographer. The name Roye Studio first appears in 1922, with the listing of the R. E. Roye Co., specializing in home portrait photos, with the principals R. D. Lockwood and R. E. Roye. The 1922 edition of the Bulletin of Photography (p. 280) reported that R. E. Roye took over the studio of A. A. Ames in the Exchange Bank Building in Spokane. The 1923 city directory lists the Roye Studio (R. E. Roye) at 608 Bank Exchange Building. The city directory listings are the same through 1927. In 1928 and 1929, the directory shows the Roye Studio at S1819 Sherman Street with R. E. Phelps as principal. The Bank Building address is no longer listed. Neither the Roye Studio nor the Phelps are in the 1930 Spokane City Directory; the family apparently moved to Seattle around this time. Roy E. Phelps died in Seattle on 20 February 1948. Lilly survived him by nearly 30 years. |