The photo was a present in 1937 from her new 10-year-old pen pal, Barbara Gill, from Leeds, England.
The pair have shared their lives since, and have now been writing to each other for 75 years.
"I was 7 years old and at Caversham School when I started writing to her. I wrote to her right through the [Second World] war and used to send over food parcels," Mrs Holgate (83) said yesterday.
Her childhood pen pal is now Mrs Turner and is aged 85.
"Later, I lived at Lauder and Omakau with four children and it was a bit isolated and writing to pen pals was an interest," she said.
Mrs Holgate and her late husband, Dick, operated Holgate Transport in Lauder.
"He died 30 years ago on October 1. It was the opening day of the fishing season."
The pen pals featured in the Central Otago News in 1963, when they met for the first time in Alexandra after corresponding for 25 years.
When Mrs Holgate visited Mrs Turner in England in 1988, the Yorkshire Evening Post published an article on their long friendship.
"Pen pals are good because you can sit down and write things that, perhaps, you wouldn't say face to face," Mrs Holgate said.
"She's a great traditionalist and just loves the Royal Family.
"She sends me newspaper clippings and items of interest about New Zealand.
"Neither of us have these computer things. I've got an electronic typewriter, although we probably don't write quite as often as we used to. We make a few more phone calls these days.
"I've had 11 pen pals and I've met them all and stayed with most of them. A few of them have passed on, but I still have four I write to," Mrs Holgate said.
"But Barbara would certainly be my oldest friend. Hopefully, we might get to 80 years, God willing."
Do readers know of any pen pal relationships longer than Mrs Holgate and Mrs Turner's?
Email nigel.benson@odt.co.nz
