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

Posts Tagged Mirah

23 October 2002

Heather: How is it that Anna Mirah* has Anna Maria written on her tombstone and in John Johnson Spencer’s Civil War pension plan, her name is also spelled with a “Y” as Anna Myriah?

Anna Maria Spencer

Audrey: I never remember seeing it with a Y! All I ever heard was Anna Mirah. The writing on stones was not professional. I don’t ever remember seeing a “y”, I was 1-1/2 years old when she died. I walked around the casket. I couldn’t see in but I walked around it.

*Anna Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) was Audrey Mae’s paternal grandmother. Audrey always referred to her grandmother as Anna Mirah (aka Myriah).  An outside explanation of Maria being pronounced as Mar-eye-ah is in a book, “Play It As It Lays” by Joan Didion.