Audrey Mae SpencerSpencer Historical CemeteryHenry Straight / William Spencer Family Cemetery
Vaughn Historical CemeterySpencers of East Greenwich, RI
17 April 2004

Heather: Tell me something about your childhood or teen years.

 

Beatrice Shippee

Audrey: Beatrice Shippee and I were best friends from the third grade to high school. Beatrice went in the commercial and I went into the college bound. Beatrice worked after high school. She worked near the Thornton Theatre in Arctic. Beatrice moved and I never got to see her again. She died when she was younger, around 60 years old.

17 April 2004

Heather: Who killed the pigs?

Audrey: There was an old man who lived in the country. His livelihood was killing pigs.*

*Crystal, Audrey’s second daughter, emailed me to say the following: “the man who killed the pigs was old man Irons.  His daughter Isabelle Irons went to Shepherd of the Valley Church.  She was about 85 years old in 1970.  She never married. I remember when he came to the house and shot the pig, Pinky.  Pinky was a big fat pink pig. So cute. Vaughn was a baby in the crib in the back room.  We were supposed to stay in the room, so we wouldn’t see what was going on. But you know me, I had to peek.  I looked out the window and saw the pig fall down.  I remember crying.  You and Deardra were there too (but you two didn’t peek!),  I never knew that we ate the pig.  Thank God!  I can remember it like it was yesterday.
17 April 2004

Heather: What was the story that Dad told about how the road in R.I. came to be?

Audrey: Yes, getting around Arctic was like a jig saw puzzle. The Indians path (became) the cow path (and then) were widened to form the street. The Indians and then the cows went the simple and flat way. They didn’t go over rocks and hills.

17 April 2004

Heather: Well, Mother, that is your way of telling me that we had better hang up now. (laughter) I love you, Mother.

Audrey: I love you Heather dear.
 
(Heather: I often asked Mother if her hand was tired and she would respond “Yes, but I want to talk” and then when her hand is too tired to keep talking, she would tell me.  Audrey would always end with I love you dear, so when she would say I love you Heather dear, I would feel extra special.)
24 April 2004

Heather: What did Grandma (MaryJane Vaughn Spencer) and Grandpa (William J.B. Spencer) think of Ed leaving school?

Audrey: Oh, they didn’t think about education the way we think today. They thought about getting a job and making money. Working was more important and making money.

24 April 2004

Heather: Didn’t you live with your mother and father when you were first married?

Audrey Mae MacDonald and sister Edith Anna Evarone in Hawthorne, California

 

Audrey: Spencer was a little boy in the playyard in Grandma’s kitchen in front of the stove. Ed would come home and eat and then get in the playyard with Spencer. Ed would fall asleep and Spen would crawl all over him. Spencer was the first grandson there as Aunt Edith’s children were all raised in California.

24 April 2004

Heather: How was it that you were the academic and stayed in school?

Audrey: Oh, I loved going to school! I went to school when I went to Anthony. I was in the fourth grade when I started there, and there I met Beatrice. We were in thc same grade, and we were friends and always together until we went to high school when they would not let us have classes together, because I was in the classical course and she was in the commercial.

They would not even let us sing together. Beatrice and I sang together (a duet) at church. I could hit high C and I had a beautiful voice. If I had been trained, I bet I could have been in opera. We sang, The Lord is my Shepherd, No want shall I know... which was a very pretty song. I would sing the tenor part and Beatrice would sing the tune. When the minister’s twin sons who were missionaries were going to Africa, they requested that Beatrice and I sing that song at the last Church service before they left. They went to Africa where there was much danger, but they returned home with no difficulty.

24 April 2004

Heather: Mother, Grandma MacDonald was a Walton and a Kenyon. What was Grandpa MacDonald’s mother’s birthname?

Audrey: Oh, let me think about that. I can’t remember right now, but I know I have it written down and you have its somewhere

(Douglas MacDonald stated that Grandpa MacDonald’s mother’s birthname was Conlon.)
24 April 2004

Heather: Oh, yes, I know where I have your work and Douglas is doing research on the MacDonalds. Mother, are you getting tired?

Audrey: No. No. I never get tired when I’m talking geneology.

24 April 2004

Heather: How are you liking your room at Alpine?

Audrey: I have the corner room here at Alpine and it is the best room here. (Alpine Staff) couldn’t be any better. Vivian (Audrey’s roommate), she is great. Vivian reminds me of Grandma.