For many years I never gave it a second thought that I called my grandmother Aunt Peggy. Many people called her Peggy, and in fact, I don't really remember anyone calling her by the title Mrs. Jones except the family housekeeper and cook, Kate, who at times was more like a member of the family than an employee.
In 1996, when it became necessary for my aunt to place my grandmother in a nursing home, I travelled down to Brielle and helped my aunt clean out the home that Aunt Peggy had lived in for my entire lifetime. I began to learn more about the woman who had always fascinated me as my aunt told me story after story about her life. It was amazing to say the least. Now, my aunt is a fanciful storyteller, so I do take some of the details with a grain of salt, but in the end, Aunt Peggy was as stylish and classy as the hat in the picture above.
The story goes that Aunt Peggy married quite young- a pilot who helped establish Pan American Airlines, but tragically died in a plane crash. She was devastated but pressed on, and somehow ended up in Hollywood as a stock actress at one of the big film studios. One of her fellow actresses went on to make it big, but Peggy left Hollywood for love. This time she married an older man who was also in the film-making business- but this time it was the film! He became one of the founding members of the Eastman Co. But he too died suddenly and once again, my grandmother was a young widow!
The story gets hazy here, but somehow, my grandmother landed in Columbus, OH. where she met Richard Hoster Jones ll, a widower with two young children. One of those children was my mother. After they married, Aunt Peggy and Gampy moved to Brielle, where Gampy started a business related to home heating. I will share more about the home they built together later, but it seems Aunt Peggy's third marriage was made to last. "It's funny," my aunt concluded, "But Mom once told me a fortune-teller told her she'd be married four times. And I did think that after Dad died, she might meet someone and marry again. But after Dad, there was no one else who could hold a candle to him and that was that."
Yes, that was that! Aunt Peggy lived a beautiful life and she was always stylish and put together perfectly! I always felt the word elegant was created for her. My mother loved and respected her tremendously for taking her role as step-mother seriously and choosing to raise two children who were not her own. She wasn't a touchy-feely kind of mom, but she was a good one.
Most of all I remember she loved to entertain. For many years our Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated at "Pandy" as the house was named. But that's another story too! So, I'll keep those memories for another day. Oh, yes, I can hear you saying, "So who was the famous actress your grandmother knew?"
Let me say it with a picture (clue within the link)!
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=katharine+hepburn+pictures&id=C45564122E24104337BACD1C41D4E2047210BBDE&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=C45564122E24104337BACD1C41D4E2047210BBDE&selectedIndex=0
Thank you Kerri, Bev, Debs and Daisy!
Thank you Dixie and Diane! Dixie and Diane- that sounds like a cool tv show!