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

Posts Tagged Aunt Jeanie

15 May 2004

Heather: Where is Aunt Jeanie (Jeanie Campbell) buried?

Aunt Jeanie and Aunt Di

Audrey: She is buried in Knotty Oak Cemetery, Coventry. Her family lived in that area. Her first husband, or was it her son Franklin, was killed in a train accident. He was going to the World’s Fair in New York when the train got in an accident. There was a big (popular) song written about it (the incident of the train accident on the way to the world’s Fair). The train fell off the tracks.

Aunt Di married twice. *Her first husband fell off  a load of hay and it killed him.  Aunt Di lived in a big mansion until her husband died. Then she came to live with Aunt Jeanie.

*Julia Rogers, a local member of the community, only knows Aunt Di being married once – to Ed Wicks. When Ed Wicks died, the property went to his family of origin and Aunt Di came to live with her sister, Aunt Jeanie.

5 June 2004

Heather: I remember Aunt Jeannie’s corn crib next door to our house on East Greenwich Avenue.

Audrey: They would pull corn up by roots and stack the corn in the corn crib. A person goes in the corn crib and pulls the corn off the stalk. They shell the corn outside the crib and cook the corn inside.

Oh there are two squirrels jumping back and forth. They are either playing or fighting. I do not know which. Now they are just looking at each other! (Laughter)

They weigh me here at Alpine in my chair! I always weighed 110 or 115 lbs. I like to be 110. I made sure I never got over 112 lbs. Now I am 129 lbs! That walker. I never use it! The caretakers are all very nice. I can’t find any fault with any of them.

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.

15 August 2004

Heather: What do you remember about the three of us?

Audrey: You were all about the same height. Crystal would pull you two along and do crazy things. Aunt Jeannie was like a mother to me. I would wheel Deardra over in Aunt Jeannie’s yard in that basket carriage with the top that goes back and forth. Aunt Jeannie would watch Deardra while she slept. Aunt Jeannie loved children. She helped me with Deardra and Vaughn. (They were the last two born and the only two born when we lived on East Greenwich Avenue, next to Aunt Jeannie.) Since Aunt Di didn’t like children, Aunt Jeannie kept Di away from the kids.

Doug, he was always reading and Spen, he was always on a horse, saddle or no. He didn’t have time to read.

Dawn, she was putting on shows for Aunt Jeannie and Dick. She would dance like she saw on TV.

Heather, you were always quiet. Always kind of fat, until you started to walk and on the go and didn’t have time to put on weight.

When you were all kids, I’d go back to that in a minute. To have you all screaming, no you kids didn’t do too much hollering. I enjoyed it when you were all kids.