Signed T206: Was Rube Marquard's Wife Signing For Him?

[ATP]

Here's an example of what I would presume is probably near the end of Rube's long life. Note that he still makes an attempt at making the first "R" all in one circular motion, and connects the R to the u fluidly without lifting the pen. And then there's the M...

I was a notary for ten years and have witnessed more signatures than most would in ten lifetimes. Sometimes I notarized the same document every month for the same person for many years. Their signature would change over time, that's is a fact known to all of us, it happens with our own name. But, one thing that always seemed to be a constant and amazed me was how it started, and to some degree how it ended. The middle changed all the time, letters shortened, letters omitted, form falls off, even slant may change some, but they would pretty much always start it the same way for the first letter or two.