Posts Tagged Aunt Jeannie

Audrey and Milton’s home, 420 East Greenwich Avenue, West Warwick, Rhode Island

“Aunt” Jeannie Campbell and her sister, Di Wicks

Audrey: I went to Spen and Bren’s house for the weekend. I go in and sit down in comfort. Julie now lives on Amanda Street with two other girls. Brenda takes medicine all the time, and she looks good, even though her stomach swells. We (Spen, Brenda and all) went to Doreen’s house for dinner. We had a lovely meal. David was puttering around his house. They have a three-sided room with half the wall being a TV. (When you kids were little) I had a big, old house. I didn’t know any better then. I didn’t feel put down at all. We had plenty of room and it was fine. Aunt Jeannie (Jeannie Campbell)^* next door was just like another mother to me. Aunt Jeannie was an angel in disguise. She took care of everybody. Her husband (or son I can not remember which) was killed in a train accident going to the First World Fair in New York. Franklin, her first son, died. However, Aunt Di, Jeannie’s sister, was a pain in the neck. She had her mouth going. She was cross.  She was always coming into the house with a broom.

*Aunt Jeannie was not a blood relative, but we all called her aunt because she was so great to all of us.  Her name was Jeannie Campbell.  Her husband was killed in a train accident returning from the World’s Fair in 1939, I believe.

Audrey: We had a round table that Aunt Jeannie gave me. Yes, I enjoyed making a puzzle. You leave it there and everybody comes by and makes a piece. When Vaughn comes over he works with me on the puzzle.

Aunt Jeanie and Aunt Di

Audrey: She is buried in Knotty Oak Cemetery, Coventry. Her family lived in that area. Her first husband, or was it her son Franklin, was killed in a train accident. He was going to the World’s Fair in New York when the train got in an accident. There was a big (popular) song written about it (the incident of the train accident on the way to the world’s Fair). The train fell off the tracks.

Aunt Di married twice. ^*Her first husband fell off  a load of hay and it killed him.  Aunt Di lived in a big mansion until her husband died. Then she came to live with Aunt Jeanie.

*Julia Rogers, a local member of the community, only knows Aunt Di being married once – to Ed Wicks. When Ed Wicks died, the property went to his family of origin and Aunt Di came to live with her sister, Aunt Jeanie.