Chemlan: Decherd, Bliss, Dorman, Smith

Betsy Decherd Lane writes on June 5 2018: 

I would guess the picture was taken at the Dorman house in Shemlan - out the back door.  Decherds spent two summers with the Dormans in Shemlan, when Harry (Gay) was a baby - and Liz Bliss (Smith) and I spent most of the time together - not all in the baskets!!  

Betsy

Simon Dodge sent the photo, which he got from Liz Smith. He wrote: "the baskets may have been made in the Druze village of Baysour, over the hill from Ainab, which is renowned for its basket-weaving."

Rebecca Decherd, the mother of Betsy Decherd, is depicted here in front of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem in 1933.

Betsy Lane lived with her parents and siblings in Aleppo in the early 1930s and with her husband and children in the 1960s.

Rebecca Decherd was a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, with a Master’s Degree in organ. Rebecca and her husband Douglas were missionaries, educators and musicians in Aleppo, Syria and Tripoli, Lebanon from 1930 to 1966. In the 1930s, Douglas was the principal at the Aleppo High School which developed into Aleppo College. He later served as principal at the boys and girls schools in Tripoli. Music was an important part of life in the three schools the Decherds served. 

See the lovely post by Betsy at the Aleppo Project about Aleppo College and

Aleppo Street Symphony, 1935

Elizabeth (Smith) Rea was born January 22, 1933 in Beirut, Lebanon. She died peacefully at Wyoming Medical Center on Monday, January 11, 2021, just 11 days before her 88th birthday. She was surrounded by her family and held in the hearts of many who loved her. Liz was a rare Casper gem—a full mix of art student, Beirut beauty, independent western woman and sophisticated world traveler. She was liberated, educated and cool, always welcoming an endless stream of diverse visitors to Casper. From teens to outcasts, two St. Bernard dogs and numerous cats, she welcomed them all and documented everything through terrible photographs and vivid sketches and caricatures.

Liz was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother, Alice Bliss Smith, had been a nurse during the World War I flu epidemic, and her father, Byron Porter Smith, was chairman of the English department at the American University of Beirut. Her childhood was both sheltered and worldly. She was surrounded by beloved aunts, uncles and cousins in Beirut’s American community. During World War II, her two older siblings were evacuated to Australia and America, and at the time of one especially serious threat of German attack, she and her parents were briefly evacuated to Jerusalem for safety. She became somewhat of a mascot to the British troops protecting Beirut, as many of them had left behind younger siblings in England. She kept in touch with them as they aged and even visited some of them during her travels. She attended the American Community School in Beirut and became fluent in “kitchen” Arabic, learned from the cooks and maids in her house. Throughout her life she would revert to Arabic when swearing, talking in her sleep, or visiting with cousins. As a young teen, she became interested in art, and her talent was encouraged by her parents. In ninth grade, she left Beirut to attend boarding school in Northfield, Massachusetts. Later she studied art at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and the Art Student League in New York.

She met her future husband, Bayard Dodge Rea of Pittsburgh, when relatives introduced them while she was still a student at the art school in Philadelphia. Both families had ties to Beirut and its American University stretching back many generations. The introduction grew into romance and led to marriage in 1952 following Bart’s graduation from college with a geology degree.

This was taken from her obituary in 2021 https://trib.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/elizabeth-smith-rea/article_0ce6e8c1-94ed-54c3-a40c-3b814d0753e3.html