The Strange Case of Patty Hearst: Part 1

It was January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton’s last day in office. In his last official act, Clinton granted a full pardon to a number of Americans, among them the notorious Patty Hearst, who had served two years for a bank robbery conviction. Twenty seven years earlier, on February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst made headlines when [...]

Read Full Post »

The Bug that Ate Topeka

Early Kansas settlers had a rough time of it. For the first twenty years of Kansas settlement, homesteaders had to battle hot winds, drought, Indian raids, and hailstorms to save their crops. But the year 1874 promised to be different. “In the spring of 1874,” wrote Mrs. Everett Rorabaugh, “the farmers began their farming with [...]

Read Full Post »

Buffalo Chip Gals

In the 1840s, many thousands of families left their homes and headed west searching for California gold or a plot of cheap but good Oregon farmland. It was usually the man of the family who got “Western fever” and made the decision to uproot the rest of the family. They loaded up their possessions, stocked [...]

Read Full Post »

Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?

Born into slavery in New York, Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth’s given name) was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She spoke Dutch until the age of nine when she was sold to a new owner along with a flock of sheep. Eventually freed, she became a devout Christian and began to travel and preach about freedom. Asking [...]

Read Full Post »

Queen Victoria in the Blue Room with a Bust

Queen Victoria was devastated by the death of her husband Prince Albert in December, 1861.* She mourned him for the rest of her life, forty full years, wearing only black and virtually becoming a hermit. The following passage describes the extreme measures the Queen took to preserve her royal consort’s memory. This scene takes place in Windsor [...]

Read Full Post »

The Civil War: The High Price of Peace

  THE PRICE OF THE CIVIL WAR UNION                                                                                                                                              Soldiers                         2,500,000-2,750,000                                            Soldiers wounded who survived     275,175                                                                          Soldiers who lost their lives              360,222                                                                        Civilians who lost their lives                   None          CONFEDERATE                                                               Soldiers                              750,000-1,250,000                                          Soldiers wounded who survived     102,703                                                     Soldiers who lost their lives              258,000                                                                        Civilians who lost their lives                50,000                                                                     The total cost of the war was $20 billion (approximately $250 [...]

Read Full Post »

John Wilkes Booth Uses the N-Word

April 11, 1865 became the official day of celebrating the end of the Civil War. An even larger crowd was assembled on the White House lawn than the night before. (See last post.) The band was playing triumphant music, people were waving banners and shouting, “Hoorah!” and calling out for President Lincoln to speak. It [...]

Read Full Post »

Abe & Elvis Whistling “Dixie”

At daylight on April 10, 1865, the firing of 500 cannons spread the news throughout Washington, D.C.,  that the War Between the States was over and the Union preserved. The cannons were so loud that they broke windows on Lafayette Square, the neighborhood around the White House. (1) “Guns are firing, bells ringing, flags flying, [...]

Read Full Post »

Mary Lincoln Goes Goth

After her son Willie’s death at age eleven on February 20, 1862,  Mary Todd Lincoln went into deep mourning. She traded in her sparkling jewels, frilly white and colorful gowns, and flowered bonnets made fashionable by her icon the French Empress Eugénie (click to read earlier post) for widow’s weeds of dull black crepe. Her stylish White House parties were put to the side. Gaiety gave [...]

Read Full Post »

Queen Elizabeth’s Grandmother Had the “Gimmies”

Queen Mary was Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother. She was married to George V. George V was the father of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, who preceded Queen Elizabeth on the throne. Queen Mary got it wrong. One is supposed to “love people and use things.” She did the very opposite. Mary loved things and used people. The Queen [...]

Read Full Post »

The Sundance Kid Remembers Butch Cassidy

Robert Redford Remembers Paul Newman (1925-2008): I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of  “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn’t want me for the film — it wanted somebody as well known as Paul — he stood up for [...]

Read Full Post »

What’s in Queen Elizabeth’s Purse?

It was June 24, 1953. Queen Elizabeth II was traveling to Scotland for the first time as Queen. In her coronation at Westminster Abbey 22 days earlier, Elizabeth had worshiped as an Anglican in the Church of England in her coronation robes. As Queen she was now the head of two churches, the Church of [...]

Read Full Post »

What They Found in Lincoln’s Pockets

On the morning of April 15, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln died, someone emptied his pockets. These contents were put in a box which was then wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. The box was then handed to Abraham’s oldest son Robert Lincoln who was at his father’s deathbed. Robert Lincoln then [...]

Read Full Post »

Mama Remembers Ethel Kennedy

Lisa: Carolyn, today let’s dish on Ethel Kennedy. What were you telling me about her anger? Carolyn: She loved Bobby so. She urged him to run for the presidency in 1968 and then, of course, he was assassinated. Jackie (Kennedy) had said that the same thing that had happened to Jack (murder) would happen to [...]

Read Full Post »

Audrey Hepburn: Growing Up Among Nazis

It was May 9, 1940, and Audrey Kathleen (Hepburn-) Ruston had just turned eleven. To celebrate, her mother, the wealthy Dutch Baroness Ella van Heemstra, had bought tickets for them to see a performance by the great English troupe, The Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Ella and her children had not been in the Netherlands very long. [...]

Read Full Post »