General Patton
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The North Shore is a great place to visit, and what’s more fun than visiting the places one has read (or written) about?
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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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After crossing the Pacific Ocean twice in a schooner—from Los Angeles to Hawaii and back, in 1935 and 1937, respectively—the Pattons were convinced they wanted to circumnavigate the globe one day.
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The inspiration behind the memorable opening scene of Patton is a photograph taken in June 1945 at General Patton’s home in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He had just completed a war bond-selling tour throughout the United States and was enjoying his first real vacation since March 1940. Unlike George C. Scott’s Patton, the real George Patton…
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Beatrice was one of the few people privy to both the public and the private Patton, two sides which were very hard to reconcile for outsiders. George spent his entire life hidden behind a mask defined by many as “Old Blood and Guts”, but with his wife he could be himself: hunting in the countryside
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It was said that men who came face-to-face with the Tiffany Chapel at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (a.k.a. the World’s Columbian Exposition) doffed their hats in reverence. Whether the chapel’s mosaic columns and stained glass windows had that effect on Frederick Ayer is unknown, but his wife Ellie–a famed horticulturalist in the Boston area–undoubtedly
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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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George Patton considered himself to “have a hell of a memory for poetry and war.” He liked to pick up the pen and write poetry to inspire himself during war, while Beatrice tried to get his work published.
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Beatrice Ayer Patton never wanted to be known. All she ever wanted was for people to remember her husband, General George S. Patton Jr. Yet, she was instrumental in him reaching his destiny, and was “a person in herself, with a great deal to offer.”
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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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