I can only draw conclusions about the girls' personalities from what I have read about them. Somewhere back in the origional thread there is a post by someone who knew them personally and she speaks of what they were like.
I think that the girls might have been a bit bolder around a stranger or someone they had only met casually if both were together, rather than one or the other walking home alone. They may have felt safer together. While Sheila may have been more reserved, and Kate more outgoing, Sheila may have been the one to lead the way as seen in one statement or Mrs. Biosca below.
I remember reading a quote from the girls' mother once in which she stated that the girls were pretty smart, and knew not to talk to strangers, but that she could imagine them being tricked into a vehicle.
She mentioned a scenario in which maybe a person were to drive up and say something like "There has been an accident, your Mom asked me to drive you to the hospital."
Below are some quotes that I have snipped from an article published in the Washington Star on 6 April 1975. The reporter made her own observations and also interviewed Mary Lyon, the girls' mother in writing the article. I posted it in its entierty in the News Reports and Articles thread a while back.
Perhaps you can draw some conclusions concerning the girls' personalities from these comments:
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Sheila and Kate went to Wheaton Plaza by themselves. First, though, they went upstairs to the pale yellow bedroom they share with their stuffed animals and dressed.
Sheila put on a navy blue sweatshirt and wheat colored jeans that she called her "Cheap jeans" and tennis shoes.
Kate had on Wrangler blue jeans, a bright gold turtleneck, a red knit jacket and brown shoes.
Mrs. Lyon told the girls she thought 3 o'clock would be "a good time" to be home.
...It was into this busy, teeming shopping scene that the two Lyon sisters walked. Two blond haired girls: Kate, the youngest, "sort of the silly one - the outgoing one" as some friends affectionately put it, and Sheila, the oldest, who they said is "quiet - she would talk when you talked to her."
Sheila is the cook, the honor roll student at Newport Junior High, the artist, the bowler, a young girl just starting to take outside babysitting jobs - with a secret ambition to be a cheerleader.
Kate likes to garden, play volleyball, roller skate, read books - and run. "She is really a fast runner - like a bullet," one friend said. And Kate is especially fond of her youngest brother, Joe. She often would dress him and walk him every day to their school, Oakland Terrace elementary.
Sheila's school is Newport Junior High, to which she rides a bus.
Sheila's and Kate's faces are not unfamiliar at Wheaton Plaza. The girls like candy and frequently browse through the shops, especially to look at clothes.
...Mrs. Biosca said one of the girls had stepped in front of her to look at a woman's wallet on display. "The one with the glasses (Sheila) was walking with the other one behind her, and had said, 'Oh, excuse me' to me. She was looking for a wallet, and I heard her say something to her sister like, 'Look at this. Isn't this nice?'"
...In the girls bedroom with the dainty vanity and the pink flowered vanity skirt and the ruffled white curtains. A poster of rock star John Denver hangs over Sheila's bed -- over Kate's one of Loggins and Messina.
...Sheila kept her money in a metal tea can. Jay counted the money in it and there was $17 and some odd cents.
"We go to Myrtle Beach every year," Mrs. Lyon said. "And we encourage the children to save their money for that. I remember Sheila said the day before, 'Hey Mom, I have $20 already.'"
"Kate had some money but she didn't have near what Sheila did."
...Mary Lyon hurriedly straightened the pink blanket on Kate's bed ...The photographer snaps a few pictures of the stuffed animals piled high on Sheila's pink sheets and blue flowered blanket. He does the same for Kate's.
... Mrs. Lyon stands over by the bookcse in a corner of the room pointing out Kate's Bobbsey Twins books. "Kate likes to read," said her mother. " She likes very sad, sentimental stories about orphans and poor little girls. She takes after me that way."
It's April 6 and the wait is still on. Mrs. Lyon has changed her mind about a lot of things. "When they come home, Kate can get her ears pierced. And Sheila can wear eye shadow."
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I recall another similar article which stated that Sheila was very good at her school subjects and had mostly A's, while Kate was not quite as studious.
