Snippets
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Since its founding in 1883, the National Horse Show had been the highlight of New York’s fall social season. The event drew the cream of American society, who attended the eight-day international jumping event dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns. During the 1930s, Beatrice and her daughters often occupied one of Madison Square Garden’s seventy-five
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Fox Conner and his wife Virginia encountered George S. Patton Jr. on a train in 1913, marking the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
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While visiting her brother in El Paso in 1916, Nita Patton was introduced to Black Jack Pershing, so named for having commanded the African-American soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. He arrived at Fort Bliss in the spring of 1914 in command of the 8th Infantry Brigade, charged with protecting the US-Mexican border. His wife
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Hamana Kalili hoped to find an abundance of ulua, a priceless indigenous Hawaiian fish, when he went to check his lines on the morning of June 1, 1926; instead, he found a great white shark measuring twelve-and-a-half feet. Gutting his surprise catch to repurpose all of its parts, Kalili discovered the manō recently enjoyed a
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On June 6, 1944, as the cross-channel invasion of France was underway, all five members of the Patton family sat huddled around the radio. The Pattons’ eldest daughter Bee listened in Washington, hoping “dad is on the way to get Johnny [her husband] out of prison camp,” while her sister and mother listened at the
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A gentle knock on the hotel room door awoke Second Lieutenant and Mrs. Patton, who had been married for less than twenty-four hours. In walked Ellen Banning Ayer, the bride’s mother, carrying a rose, followed by the bride’s brothers and sisters carrying the breakfast tray. The seven Ayer siblings—the first four from the union of
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Thirty miles from Boston, in the Pride’s Crossing section of Beverly, stood the Ayer family’s majestic country home. Avalon was a magical place along the rocky Massachusetts’ North Shore George Patton described as “almost more beautiful than it is possible to imagine.” Completed in 1906 in a mere eight months, Avalon was named after the
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For General Patton, there was nothing more beautiful than a well-executed dress parade, especially when his wife composed the music. Beatrice Patton possessed an “artistic temperament” and an ear not only for languages but also for music. She had a perfect understanding of harmony, “played the piano by ear, could transpose as she played, liked
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Beatrice Patton knew after years of experience that the trick was “not to say goodbye at all” but to be “very casual about it.” The plan had been for the Pattons’ leave-taking to take place at Bolling Airfield just outside Washington, but when they stood on the tarmac on the afternoon of October 23, 1942,
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Beatrice Banning Ayer (left) was born in one of the upstairs bedrooms at the Ayer Mansion in Lowell on January 12, 1886. She had blue eyes, blonde hair, and a little dimple in her chin just like her mother. Ellie named her daughter Beatrice not because of a family connection, but because of its meaning.
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