Winifred Breining, One of Sandusky’s "Fair Daughters"

Winifred Katherine Breining was born in Sandusky on May 17, 1891 to William and Mary Breining. Winifred served as class secretary during her senior year at Sandusky High School, graduating with the class of 1909½. After attending Ohio University, she became an elementary teacher at Monroe School. 

During the early 1910s, the Sandusky Register ran a series of photographs of Sandusky’s popular young ladies. The series was known as “Fair Daughters of Sandusky.” The portrait above, taken by W.A. Bishop was displayed in the window of the Bishop photographic studio on Washington Row in Sandusky.

A copy of her portrait also appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, when her engagement was announced. 

On July 14, 1917, Winifred K. Breining married Sandusky businessman William J. Duff at the First Reformed Church in Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. Duff served as Deputy Treasurer of Erie County for several years. Mr. and Mrs. Duff had two sons. Below is a family picture taken of the William J. Duff family in the 1920s, by W.A. Bishop, the same photographer who took Winifred’s picture when she was one of “Sandusky’s Fair Daughters.”

Descendants of William and Winifred Duff donated several family pictures to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. William Duff passed away in 1948. Winifred Breining Duff died in June of 1959. Both Mr. and Mrs. Duff were buried in Oakland Cemetery.