Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical CemeterySpencers of East Greenwich, RI

Posts Tagged Vaughn

1 January 2003

H: Yes, I plan to be there for your birthday.

William J.B. Spencer, MaryJane Vaughn Spencer and Betty

Audrey: There are two people with a big dog and they are being yanked along by the dog. (Laughter) I always had Betty, a nice quiet dog. She died in the street. Doug left in his old Ford and Dixie (our dog) followed him. We’ve had our ups and downs with dogs. E-ow, our cat, could say his name! He followed Dawn with Vaughn in the doll carriage. E-ow used to go over to the Campbell’s* because Addy had a cat named Whitie. And then we had Sardy.

*Aunt Jeannie Campbell and sons, Addy and Dick, lived next door to the west when we lived on East Greenwich Avenue.  Aunt Jeannie also had a son named Franklin who died young. We as children never knew him.

Audrey drew the picture of family dog Betty


9 January 2003

Heather: What’s the news on the east coast?

Audrey: Belinda is on a break from school. She is into the third semester. She enjoys working in nursing.  She will be an R.N. when she passes the board.  She has a 5 hours drive (238 miles) to get here.  Belinda took me to Walmart today. I am looking for a white winter coat, a tan, thin coat.  Lisa came over for supper. Vaughn came too.

24 May 2003

Heather’s visit with Audrey at RIHS: Mother, have you ever been to the R.I. Historical Society in Providence?

Audrey: Yes, but I should have gotten more dressed up.  Why didn’t I?

(Heather:  Mother, don’t say that. You look fine.   You sit here with Spencer at this table.  Chuck and I will go look for the Spencer and Vaughn geneology books.  We will bring the books to the table.)

10 January 2004

Heather: What do you remember about your family house on 742 Washington Street in Coventry?

Spencer, Dawn, Douglas, Heather, Deardra and Vaughn MacDonald

Audrey: The front door was never used. It was just to look at. It was beautiful. I can always see that front door of that big house. That door was beautiful. Grampa (William J.B. Spencer) sold the homestead in East Greenwich and we bought the house in Coventry with the money.

I lived there since I was twelve years old until I married and we moved to a small house. We went back to live at 742 Washington Street until we bought the house on East Greenwich Avenue in West Warwick. You (Heather) were nine months old when we moved.

I got by. I had the children there. I was making up things all the time. We would go out and play and pick daisies. The field was full of daisies. But I enjoyed you kids. It was all I needed—my seven masterpieces as I call you.

16 March 2004

Heather while visiting Audrey at Alpine Nursing Home: I read a newspaper article that you saved about Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversity. Wasn’t Vaughn, Deardra and I born at Mitchell’s Maternity Home?


Mitchell Maternity Home

Audrey: Yes. I went to Mitchell’s Maternity Home (90 West Warwick Avenue) to have my last three children, Vaughn, Deardra and you. Mrs. Mitchell was a Registered Nurse and operated the Mitchell Maternity Home in West Warwick.

1 May 2004

Heather: What did you call grandma?

Mary Jane Vaughn Spencer sketched by Audrey Mae Spencer

Audrey: I think I called her mom. Or, I think I would have called her mama. If I said mother, she would have looked at me as if I were crazy. I do not know if anyone was calling her mother. I know my own mother when she spoke of her mother and father always said mother said this or father said that.

Grandma’s father always wore high boots. They (the Vaughns) had land. They were rich in land, but not in money. They had nothing but land. Grandpa Vaughn chopped wood and planted corn. Grandma and Grandpa Vaughn had five daughters and two sons. The daughters were MaryJane, Martha, Susan, Rachel and Margaret.

Martha married Harry Kirby and they had two sons, Harry Jr. and Ray. Harry, Jr., the first son worked on the trolley as did his father, Harry Sr. I gave Vaughn the middle name of Ray after Martha’s second son who was a big strong man who was always making everyone laugh (with his jokes and quick wit) just like his father, Harry, Sr.

One of the other sisters had to go be a housekeeper for a poor man who lived alone. None of them starved to death, but they were only rich in land.

6 June 2004

Heather: You really did give a lot of thought to our names. Two, Vaughn and Spencer, are totally English ancestry. Two, Douglas and Heather, have both Scottish and English names. Deardra is a book title as well as a movie. Crystal is a movie star and Dawn is one of the RISD students, whom you really didn’t know very well. She was not in your classes, but when you heard her name you loved it so.

Audrey: I saw Theo yesterday. Everything was going on around here. There were things to sell. (Alpine Nursing Home’s activities)

27 June 2004

Heather: Did Grandma recite nursery rhymes when you were little?

Audrey: Grandma told nursery stories to me. She sang a song, one-half a story and one-half a song. Grandma would fall asleep, but I was first.

Aunt Jeannie was a second mother. Vaughn went over there as it was a second home. Vaughn didn’t like Aunt Di at all. She took his toys and put them on top of the ice box, where Vaughn couldn’t get them. Addy hollered at her to not take Vaughn’s toys.

Aunt Di had lived in a mansion. When Di’s husband died, she couldn’t live there alone. She was miserable to everyone. Aunt Jeannie was older than she, so aunt Jeannie had to boss her around.

Aunt Di kept out of Dick’s way. He hollered at her. If Dick would get a hold of Di, he would shake her. Addy kept out of Dick’s way. Addy was named out of a book that Aunt Jeannie was reading.

Dick blamed his mother, Aunt Jeannie, for letting the doctors do an operation on him. The doctor said Dick would be cured, but in the end all Dick could do is walk with crutches. (He had polio as a child.) He could drive his car. Here he was an old bachelor and he never harmed any of us. He always said we girls were his legs. He was a wonderful old bachelor. He was always reading. Addy didn’t care to read. Addy didn’t even have a car. Dick would back his truck to the grocery store and they (grocery store help) would put the food in the back of his truck. Addy would bring food into house.

3 July 2004

Heather: Who has visited you lately?

Audrey: I see Vaughn all the time. We had a walk around. He took me in my (companion) chair on the cement sidewalk. (We had) flashlights and looked at everything. I see people all the time. It’s nice and sunny. Everybody keeps coming and going.

I won twenty five cents at Bingo. I have a special smaller table in the art gallery dining room.

Dawn has a boyfriend in Florida. She has a brand new house. Spen and Carol are up in New Hampshire. It’s nice and sunny as it can be. Amber, she pops in every once in a while.  She gets my books in the right places.

 

15 August 2004

Heather: How would you describe your kids?

Audrey: Vaughn, he was a little fussier. He looked at everything. He looks things over inside and out. He is great for giving everything a good look before he goes into anything. His mind is going a mile a minute, but he doesn’t say much about it. He doesn’t like to write,but he studies very carefuly and he remembers everything. I do think he still does that. Anything he has to do he thinks about it very carefully. He thinks it all through!

Deardra, (She was found sound asleep up in the attic) I thought she got lost in the woods. I about had a fit! She had played all day in the attic. It got dark and the rest of the kids came down but she fell asleep in her part of the attic. You all had a part of the attic that was your own. Spencer just (climbed the ladder and) stuck his head up (through the attic opening) and looked around and came down and said not there. We were calling Deardra, and we had started to go up the road, calling Deardra. It was hours before we found her. They (a local police officer) brought her down from the attic. She has been lying down near the front window, behind the chimney and the officer went up and got her. The law enforcement officers were smiling when they brought her down. They thought they had a lost child on their hands. They were relieved. It was hours before we found her.

Deardra and Heather tagged along after Crystal. She would haul you along for mischief, like knocking on somebody’s door and then running away.

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