Genevieve Straughn Hearn

Genevieve Straughn Hearn was born May 4, 1915 and died in her sleep Nov 3, 2019 at Springhill Senior Residence nursing home. She was 104 years old!

She was born in Mobile and lived there her whole life.

She knew a LOT about old Mobile and all the changes in the last hundred years.

Here is her history as well as I can transcribe it from the notes I took while she reminisced about these things over the years:

Addison Perry is the Great-grandfather of Genevieve. He was a methodist Chaplain in North Carolina during the civil war, making Genevieve a “daughter of the Confederacy”. He had 13 children, one of which was Samuel Minter Perry.

Samuel Minter Perry was Genevieve’s maternal grandfather. Genevieve always referred to him as ‘The Rascal’. He liked to visit down by the water’s edge; specifically, the Coden area in Alabama where the Jordan Tysor family lived. The Rascal married Lucy Jordan Tysor in 1897. One year later, on June 5, 1898, Wilhelmena Jordan Perry was born in Siler, North Carolina. She was Genevieve’s mother. Everyone called her ‘Willie’. Her sister, Josephine Perry (Josie) was born June 4, 1900. Josie was named after a sister of her father. Lucy died soon after Josie was born, in 1901, after which The Rascal married 3 more times. As The Rascal moved from one marriage to another, Willie was moved from ‘pillar to post’, being cared for by different members of the family until she was about 13 years old. Then The Rascal decided to take her to live with his sister Josie, in Florida. Josie was very pretty, lived with rich men, and led a flamboyant life.

But on the way to Florida, he drove through Mobile to visit his brother Tom Perry and sister-in-law Anastasia Kennedy Perry (Nanny). They lived on the corner of Savannah and Broad Streets. Nanny was pregnant with their 3rd child. Nanny loved children, and the way she made over them would cause any child to love Nanny. Nanny was a hard-working Irish Catholic. Genevieve said Nanny was close to becoming a saint, her fingers always working rosary beads in her pockets. Willie loved Nanny and didn’t want to leave, so The Rascal let her stay with Nanny and Tom for good. That’s how Willie came to live in Mobile.

The Rascal liked women and water. Tom got The Rascal a job as a boat pilot which kept the Rascal in Mobile. There he met Ms. Swain and married her. They had 2 children. But Ms. Swain left him at some point and moved to Texas with the kids. Then he lived with or married a woman from Boston (or Baltimore?) with whom he had 2 other children (maybe twins).

The Rascal came to visit his daughter Willie half a dozen times while Genevieve was growing up. He would come for dinner. He was a charmer who told big lies. He went to Texas (don’t know why) and that here he died (don’t know where, when or why he died). Willie hired a detective to find him, but the detective was unsuccessful.

Tom and Nanny Perry followed their son’s family to N. Carolina after their son became a manager of a country club restaurant there. Tom is buried in Moravian Church cemetery in North Carolina, around Winston Salem.

At 15, Willie married Leo Louis Muntz, whose parents (Louis and Mary Muntz) ran a grocery store that fronted Georgia Street and sided Savannah Street. Genevieve was born a year later, at Nanny’s house. Leo and Willie were divorced by the next year.

Nanny was Genevieve’s mentor. Genevieve was at Nanny’s house more than her own. She often visited her beloved Nanny and three cousins. She stayed with them so much, they called he their ‘little sister’. Even after Nanny’s family moved to N. Carolina, Genevieve visited them every summer, until she married at age 24.

Genevieve was 3 years old when her mother married William (Will) Gray Straughn in 1918. They moved into the Straughn family home to live with Will’s mother and five sisters: Vera, Catherine, Anne, Orlean and Merle. One man and eight women! What a challenge for all of them! After 3 of Will’s sisters were married, Will, Willie and Genevieve moved to their own home on Elmira street,

Genevieve told me many times Will was a wonderful father to her. He gave her a special silver ring when she was 16. Will had many siblings. One of them was Martha Orlean Taylor. She too had the nickname ‘Nanny’.

During Willie’s marriage, she kept in touch with the Perry family, visiting them by train in N. Carolina. She loved baking cakes and often took fresh cakes with her on these train trips.

The Mobile Bay Boats had music and dances. Genevieve remembered being on them when she was 2-3 yrs old, sitting on a bench watching her mother dancing.

In Summer, her family did overnight outings in Coden. Other members in the extended family would join them. They would pack up blankets and food and drive hot dusty roads in open top vehicles. Their destination was empty warehouses near the fishing docks. There they would set up camp for a weekend of swimming and relaxation, sleeping in the warehouses at night.

Will and Willie had three other children, Alma Claire, Betty Jane (who was born in the Elmira house) and William Gray Straughn. (I wonder if they ever mixed up the Will, Willie and William names?) Each of them eventually married, extending the family with many children.

Genevieve married Dillard Arlet Hearn December 11, 1939. They had 1 child, Robert.

Alma married Warren Boutreis. They had 7 children: Warren, Bobbie, Tommy, Gene, Connie, Judy, Vicki.

Betty married Mr. Hallman and had 2 boys, David and Kenneth. Her second marriage was to Vince Torrell

William and his wife Mary had two children, Michael and Ellen.

Alma, Betty and William were all younger than Genevieve, but she outlived them all. William spent his last few years at Knollwood Pointe assisted living, where Genevieve was his regular visitor, taking William to the dining room for his dinner almost every day. He was good natured, and funny and always had a smile. He loved baseball. So did Betty, their sister. Genevieve liked to talk about them.

Genevieve’s mother, Willie, was a wonderful cook. She once told her Grandson she started ‘stirring food’ when she was 5 years old! She loved to feed people. She even took in strangers for meals. If she ran into ‘Soldier Boys’ in downtown Mobile, she would invite them home for lunch. It was the depression era and beggars came to the back door regularly. Willie would give them food ‘if they looked okay’. She baked lots and lots of cakes! Genevieve said there were always cakes cooling on the windowsill. Even when they were adults, her grown children and their spouses enjoyed lunch breaks from work at Willie’s table every day.

Willie spent her last year and a half at Allen Memorial nursing home. Genevieve visited her every day to feed her and be with her, taking her laundry home to clean.

At 5 yrs old, Genevieve began school at Lienkauf Elementary. She told me she had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch under the scuppernong arbor there. Barton Academy and Murphy High School were next. There were only 11 grade levels then. She graduated in the same month she turned16.

Genevieve had her first job at sixteen in a candy shop located across from Dumas Grocery. Her stepfather was the shipping clerk/wholesale grocer at Dumas grocery/E.E. Crum & Co. on Water Street for a long time. At the candy store she rolled candy canes and peppermint sticks and packed them in boxes. 50 hrs a week @ 12 cents/hr. $6 a week, of which $4 went to her mother.

She also worked at Dumas Grocery for a short while with her Stepfather. Her job there was to open cigarette packages, put a ‘Dumas Grocery’ stamp on each one, then re-pack them.

Then it was on to Huffstedlers’ Business School. There she earned a degree which launched her into the clerical world of stenography, typing and dictation. She used her clerical skills working at Cutahay Meat Packing Plant, the State Draft Board, American Bank and eventually Scott Paper Company. She initially carpooled to Scott Paper for 10 years.

After a 26-year career at Scott Paper, retired as head of the secretarial pool. She excelled in that position and was very well respected. She was a mentor to her staff and expected a lot from them. I heard many stories about her bosses, the parties they had, and the Peyton Place events that went on there. Scott Paper had 2 big dance parties a year. Several times they were held at the Battle House and the Bienville Club.

Genevieve was very stylish and loved to wear various styles of hats and gloves. She was also quite a seamstress. During her working career she made all her clothes, so they would be inexpensive, yet fashionable and so they fit perfectly. She liked to look her best. Never without nail polish and her hair looking good. We surprised her with a big party for her 90th birthday. It was quite fun, and many people attended; even previous employees from Scott Paper secretarial pool were there! She had a great time. But several years later she said the only thing that would have made it nicer was if she had been dressed better!

As she aged, her hair turned cottony white and people always commented on how beautiful it was. She never stopped enjoying compliments, or having her nails painted.

She had many memories of Rag Swamp, Barton Academy, the old Trolley, Cherokee Street where she and Arlet built their first home, and of the ferry that took them from Mobile to Daphne and Fairhope.

I believe Genevieve told me they were on the Daphne Beach when they heard the news about the end of WWII.

When she was 97, we drove downtown to reminisce in those areas. She led me to her old house on Elmira, and the house on Palmetto Street where she and Arlet had their first apartment, then to her mother’s home on Georgia Street. It was quite interesting to hear her talk about those times in her life.

Genevieve gave up the keys to her car when she was 96. But not before she had some fun at the DMV. Her drivers license was expiring, so she went to the DMV to renew it. The lady at the counter really thought hard over whether she should renew the license, but in the end, gave in. Genevieve had a great laugh over having a new license that expired when she would turn 100!

Genevieve met her husband Arlet, on a church hayride. Most of his working career he was Materials Manager of the warehouse at Alabama Dry docks. For Arlet, Friday nights were for soft shell crabbing. Saturdays were for Red Fishing. And hunting was for no-fish weekends. He would have liked Genevieve to join him, but she found her interests in other hobbies, like sewing and reading. It all worked well between them. Arlet loved bowling, fishing, hunting, gardening, and Genevieve. And Genevieve loved Arlet. She was a great cook, and she loved cooking his vegetables from his big backyard garden, which included snap beans, purple hull peas, green peppers, summer squash, okra, and the best tomatoes you’ll ever find! She knew how to turn out some great Southern food, just like her mother did.

Their first home was on Cherokee Street. She called this “her” home. Their next home was on Demotropolis Road, where Arltet had his big garden. This was ‘Artlet’s’ home, because he built it from scratch. They were married just shy of 61 years, until his death in September 2000.

She and Arlet were faithful members of the Dauphin Way Baptist church. Her ritual every morning was reading her daily devotions. On of her favorite things to do was go to Sunday School. She liked that even better than the Sunday Service. She loved to learn. She was a contemplative, analytical person, an avid reader, and a great listener who loved discussions.

They had one child, Robert, who meant everything to them. Their family summer outings would alternate between vacations at Swirns’ Cottages in Orange Beach and visiting with Eunice McNiders’ family at their beach house on Fort Morgan road or with Olivias’ family at Gulf Shores.

Robert’s caregiver while Genevieve worked was Louise. Louise was a special person to their family. She was steadfast and loyal. She was a good person who loved Robert like her own. She would never eat with the family and insisted on riding in the back seat when Genevieve drove.

Robert managed several bars and restaurants in Mobile, including Bojangles, Trinitys, Ichabod’s, Ruth Chris, and Mobile Yacht Club. But the love of his life was sailing. He owned several sailbots during his life and engaged in many sailing races. He dreamed of one day being ‘an Old Man of the Sea’. He married Mary Bignoli in 1981. In 1989, they had one child, Mary Catherine. When Mary Catherine was almost 3, Robert died at age 44 from melanoma. Genevieve and Arlet never got over his death.

Mary Catherine was Arlet’s angel and Genevieve’s precious, precocious granddaughter. She was artistic, smart and sharp-witted, all at an early age. She spent a lot of time in the care of her Grandmother. They shared many tea parties, conversations and books, and just enjoyed each other’s company. Genevieve even let Catherine bury her in beach sand one summer!

When Genevieve was around 95, We took a drive to Orange Beach to see if we could find their old vacation place, Swirn’s Cottages. We were close, but couldn’t pinpoint the location, so we asked a lady on her porch if she had heard of the place. She said she was new to the area, but she recently bought a big book of the history of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. She was pretty sure she saw that name in there. We checked the table of contents, and sure enough, there it was! Just down the road! Only one cottage was left, and in later years, this area became a beautiful playground, art center, and boardwalk on the water.

As Genevieve got older and entered assisted living at Knollwood Pointe, dementia care at Somerby and eventually nursing home care at Springhill Senior Residence, she entertained the staff and visitors with her kindness, sociability and humor, even throughout her dementia.

My Comments

1. Genevieve was a loyal friend, who loved deeply.

2. She was direct and honest, sometimes not tactfully. She liked catching people off-guard with her unexpected comments. And always commented if someone had gained weight!

3. She was somewhat formal in her posture and presented a controlled front. She was not a ‘hugger’, but that changed after her granddaughter was born.

4. She was a Republican Southerner, stem to stern and always voted.

5. She was genuine in her responses; they came from her heart and head.

6. She had a good, but dry sense of humor and loved to tease.

7. She was concrete, practical, and had good common sense.

8. She was a very good listener, interested in people. She gave wise counsel.

9. As she aged, she became more of a talker.

10. She had a great memory for names, dates and events. If I didn’t remember something, I could always rely on her for the info I needed. It was ironic that dementia would take over that characteristic.

11. Her greatest entertainment was being a people watcher. She most enjoyed watching children and sitting where she could watch and talk about people going by.

12. She was playful and loved cute, colorful, whimsical things.

13. She enjoyed trees, being outdoors, watching birds, butterflies and squirrels, ducks at the park. She enjoyed imagining and describing pictures in the clouds, sitting in the sun and watching the sunset.

14. She was the best Mother-in-Law anyone could ever ask for.

15. And now, I am sure she is completely enjoying being with our Lord.

A favorite bible passage she wanted read at her funeral: Proverbs 3: 5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.