4 July 2002
Heather: What have you been doing, Mother?
Audrey: Anna sat in my house; we had a lovely visit. Luanne has told her all the tales. Crystal really enjoys it. Everything is going along fine!
Audrey Mae Spencer
Glimpses of the Past: Morning Conversations with Audrey
Monthly Archives: July 2002
4 July 2002
Heather: Your life span has been full of change. What was it like?
Audrey Mae Spencer
Audrey Mae MacDonald
Audrey: I lived through everything that happened in the 20th Century—from horse and buggy to the moon. I was born 1912, living through an era of change.
4 July 2002
Heather: Tell me again about my great-grandmother, Anna Maria [Anna Maria Spencer] and my great-grandfather, John Johnson Spencer.
Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Spencer
Audrey: Richard Spencer, (Audrey’s paternal great,great-grandfather) and Roby (née Tarbox) had seven children. Their youngest child was Esther Amanda (née Spencer) Briggs (aka Aunt Mandy) and their oldest child was Richard Anthony*. Richard Anthony died at age 27 when his child, Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) was only a year old. The Spencers raised Anna Maria so she grew up with Esther Amanda as they were only eight years apart. They grew up like sisters.
*There are two Richard Anthony Spencers so the father was always referred to as Deacon Richard and his son was always called Richard Anthony. This website distinguishes between the two by Richard Anthony (“Deacon”) Spencer as the father and Richard Anthony Spencer as the son.
10 July 2002
Heather: What are you reading?
Audrey: I love Emily Dickinson’s poems “…a route of effervescence on a revolving wheel” is a humming bird never stopping… I didn’t have anyone to discuss this (poetry) with. I always explained everything I liked to Edna Tarbox and I thought afterward, “Was she bored to tears?”.
10 July 2002
Heather: How did it happen that you decided to go to the R.I. School of Design?
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Audrey: Maisie Kenyon said to me “Let’s go to the School of Design. They have free scholarships.” She was a beautiful girl; she was nice to me. She flunked after the first session! She married Art Harpen and that put her out of my category; the minute she married Harpen, she was out of my class. She didn’t want me to visit her.
10 July 2002
Heather: Was it difficult leaving R.I.S.D. after attending for three years?
Heather Dale MacDonald
Audrey: I enjoyed having Spen so much…
When you were born, I argued with the Doctor, I said “no no”, it can’t be a girl born on the 9th! All the males in my family were born on the 9th. Dad’s the 9th; Spencer’s the 9th; Douglas’ the 9th!
10 July 2002
Heather: Sorry about that, Mother. (Laughter)
Crystal Gay MacDonald
Audrey: Oh, but I loved all my babies! … Crystal couldn’t wait to get up and get into mischief…
10 July 2002
Heather: Did you miss anything in life?
Audrey: I always felt so bad I never had a black friend.
10 July 2002
Heather: Tell me more about your grandfather, John Johnson Spencer.
Pvt. John Johnson Spencer, Co. H, 1 Reg’t R.I. Cavalry
Audrey: John Johnson Spencer, my grandfather, died in our house in Coventry. He was sick all his life because of his treatment when he was a prisoner of war. I was 12 years old when my father sold the farm and we moved to the Coventry house. My grandmother, Anna Maria died much earlier than John Johnson Spencer. Aunt Mandy died in 1927, I think.
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Glimpses of the Past: Morning Conversations with Audrey
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