Born A King (eBook)

Monica Ann Joyal (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
260 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-7124-8 (ISBN)

Infos

From Ireland to Manchester, NH , the King family came to America and settled in. One King would rise among them and attend Harvard and Columbia, move to New York, only to return to his native New Hampshire with his wife, Anna. Together, they would enter the 1960s during a time of turmoil, joining with other Irish Democrats and try to settle a country fraught with social change. The author spent her formative years reading newspapers that included much rhetoric about her uncle, John King. He would become the first Democrat elected in decades in a then, very republican state. The book includes personal stories about the entire King clan, their summers at camp, their pets and their commitment to each other. Monica was one of nine nieces and nephews, all of whom were influenced by the King involvement in government. It was a time of glamour and struggle, loss and fame.

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The book begins in Ireland. John was born in 1916, the year of bloodshed in Ireland. His parents left their homeland for a better life. The never returned, but would always long for their homeland. This is reflected in the music which was so much a part of Bell Street where the family lived. Each member of the king family has its story. But John King's was the most well-known. And he would bring all of them into the world of the Kennedy's, Johnsons, and leaders, like General Isenhower. John kept in contact with many national figures, His correspondence is included in the book. King would creat both a problem and a cure for New Hampshire's lagging education system and change the way states raised revenue. His use of horse racing was borrowed from Ireland, but fit perfectly into the Granite State. Although it was controversial. The author will bring the reader into the family summers on Pleasant Lake, the favorite dogs of John King, as well as the many women who supported his re-elections. King was the only person to serve in all three branches of the state government. He has a library named after him in the NH Supreme Court, anyone can use it. A book of remembering and a book of establishing the influence one person can have. Among the pages are images taken from both the NH Historical Society as well as family albums. There are letters from Bob, Ted and Jack Kennedy, some political others personal. It was a time to be remembered when so much was aspired to and so much lay ahead. It is an American story told by someone who witnessed it and was impacted by what she saw. History buffs, local residents, Irish, and political observers will enjoy this story. So much has changed, and yet, there is much that resembles the social climate we have today. It is an American tale.

Textauszug

Chapter 6
The King Clan

“When Irish eyes are smiling, sure it’s like a morn in spring . . .
but when Irish eyes are crying, it will steal your heart away.”

Words by Chauncy Olcott & George Graff (1912).

John King’s parents, Annie and Mike, arrived on the shores of America at the turn of the twentieth century. They both came originally from the same region of Ireland, Galway Bay, but met here. Michael King was born in 1884. He planned to become a schoolteacher. His purpose for coming to America was to enjoy a vacation and see the country. He had three brothers—Henry, Patrick, and John—as well as two sisters, Mary Margaret and Nora. Henry would settle in nearby Massachusetts. The others remained in Ireland. Michael King’s father was John W. King, whom the young John would be named after. Michael King’s mother was the former Bridget Glynn.

According to family stories, Pa (this is what Michael would be called by us all) had some savings back in the homeland. His father had remarried. When Michael requested to have his money sent here, it was denied. The story goes that it was the fault of the new wife. And so, Michael would be unable to start his new life here with something in hand. He had to start over from scratch, as the money never came.

Pa’s own father, John King, worked for the Irish government in the lighthouses. The Kings apparently also raised fine horses. They were Connemara ponies, known for speed. A very successful one would have a ballad written about one of its races. That horse was called “The Mountain Lad.”

My grandmother was born in 1887. Annie Lydon is said to have come to America with a sister. That sister ventured deeper into the US and settled in Montana. And although they wrote to one another, neither would see the other ever again.

Annie and Mike were said to have had their first child in 1911. They named her Anne E.. I was told that the child only lived a few months and died on Christmas Eve of the same year. Six children followed: Mary, Agnes, John, Monica, Winifred, and Ruth. This story proved inaccurate upon further investigation, but it remains in the family lore. Apparently, Ann was born after Mary. But the loss remained a part of the family story, and death records do prove that she did not survive her first year.

Of course, as in any family, there are varying versions of many events. I have relied on the oral stories I heard from my mother and her sisters Win and Monica, who loved to tell them to me. And of course, they also got some facts wrong with the telling.

Pa was an active member of the parish of St Ann Church on Union Street. All his children would be baptized there. He was also a member of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles. His local aerie (the nest or lodge) met in Manchester. The purpose of this organization was to promote a fraternal spirit “of liberty, truth, justice, and equality, to make human life more desirable by lessening its ills, and by promoting peace, prosperity, gladness, and hope” (Wikipedia). The original members joined in response to a musicians’ strike. It was founded mostly by theatre owners in 1898. Pa played the flute quite well, and so it was a natural fit. Their symbol was the eagle. They were known to meet, hold their usual business meeting, and then share a pint and socialize. The Order is credited with promoting the national celebration of Mother’s Day.

My records show that Mary, the oldest, was born in 1910. This will not be the only time that the dates of births will prove to be quite an interesting bit of , shall we say, imagination. Ann was not the first-born, Mary was. But all the sisters would exaggerate their ages, each determined to be younger than the other. And so, I will not disrespect their wishes by getting caught up in precision regarding their true ages.

Mary would enjoy the era into which she was born, the 1920s. The King family was small, and the times were good. Photos show a little Mary in fancy dresses and pretty shoes. She was sent for violin lessons, something the others never experienced. She played infrequently by the time I was born, and so I never heard her play. But Monica, her sister, claimed that Aunt Mary was proficient at the instrument.

Attractive, outgoing, and the apple of Pa’s eye, Mary would marry young. Her husband’s name was Napoleon, but my mother referred to him as Nappy. He is deeply imprinted in my mother’s childhood memory because he played the piano. She was learning it on her own and said that she observed his techniques and adopted much of them. He played mostly on the black keys, and so would she. The marriage was short-lived. Nappy disappeared into the volumes of the past, except for the impressionable Ruth, Mary’s little sister. Mary left town. Divorce among Roman Catholics was frowned upon, and so the breakup sent her off to make a new life as a single woman.

But Mary would prevail. Although petite at five feet, two inches tall, she was not small in any way. She remarried and traveled extensively during the years that followed. The man she married was in service of the US government and was stationed all over. The asthma she developed would later be attributed to their time in tropical areas. The name Reeves was his, and it was the one she would keep. What became of him is another myth not to be tested. Some said that he was killed in a plane crash. Others couldn’t be sure if that was before or after they separated. Again, I rely on what I know as the family version and respect the reasons. But Mary was on her own again.

My Aunt Mary was a glamourous woman. Chatty and blonde, she sparkled. Her arrival in the Queen City on her routine visits, especially around the holidays, were greatly anticipated. Our best parlor on Bell Street was opened for her. Full of stories, Mary would remain for me the epitome of style and femininity. If it was in fashion, she wore it. Even her nightwear was clearly not meant to keep her warm in New England’s winters. Her suitcases burst with style. No one dwarfed this tiny figure in any room she entered.

By the 1960s, Aunt Mary was employed by Mr. Marriott, of the hotel business. She started when he only had Hot Shoppes. She grew with the business. When they expanded into Washington, DC, she was a part of it. JFK was in the White House, and her brother, John, was the Democratic governor of NH during these years.

Family legend has it that Mary had no formal education and once tried to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. She felt that to be able to converse with all kinds of people, it was vital that you were well versed in all subjects. She would talk about fitted sheets in her hotels, a trip on Mr. Marriott’s yacht, or the difficulty of wearing short skirts, in a heartbeat. Truly self-educated, Mary would be a part of her brother’s connections while he was visiting the US Capitol. She died in 1990 of emphysema. Mary Reeves remains a queen among the Kings.

Agnes King Tessier is John’s next sister. Among the other King sisters, she was always considered to be the most beautiful. Voluptuous and outgoing, Agnes’s laughter rang at every social event. She accompanied Roland, her husband, everywhere he traveled, often into Canada. They were a very social couple. Many wondered how it was that Roland ever won her heart. The sisters remembered many suitors arriving at the door at Bell Street, for Pa’s inspection. Roland had red hair and wore glasses. But Agnes saw that there was more to him. Everyone liked Roland. He would own and run Roland R. Tessier Insurance Agency. We had a huge calendar with his name on it that hung in our house for as long as I can remember.

Uncle Roland loved the Boston Red Sox. If a television or radio was on, it was only a matter of time before it would be tuned into the game. He did not live to see them win the 2004 World Series, but I have eyewitnesses who swear to this: His sons, Tom and Michael, made a special trip to the cemetery where he lay buried just to dance and toast the win. Roland Tessier had a lifelong loyalty to the Sox and a vast collection of very worn-out baseball caps to prove it.

As with most of John’s brothers-in-law, Roland served in WWII. He was in the US Marine Corps. He and Agnes had four children. The boys, Tom, and Michael followed their uncle John King into law and law enforcement. Ruth graduated from Dartmouth. Her son, Matt, Roland’s grandson, had a special bond with him and became a successful journalist. Nancy was an educator, principal, and education activist. She died in December of 2021, the.first among John King nieces and nephews to die.

The next sister in age was Monica. John is two years her senior, and so they shared their entire childhood together. Since I was her namesake, she also shared a special bond with me. Unlike the other sisters, who had fair skin and light brown to blond hair, Monica took after her father’s side. She had dark, pearl-shaped eyes, and black hair, and she was inches taller than all the others. John took great satisfaction in telling her that she was not a part of the family but was adopted. This really irritated her. The teasing had a lifelong history between them. Seldom when they were in each other’s company did John not take advantage of the opportunity to get a rise out of her. This lasted well into adulthood.

Monica King McAfee trained as a nurse at the Sacred Heart Hospital, formerly on Hanover Street in...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.10.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-7124-8 / 9798350971248