Love Stories: Ann and George

Ann in 1939 at 22

Anna Marie was born in 1917, her mother Anna Marie's seventh daughter. She married George in October, 1942 when she was 24 and he was 30 years old.

In the 1940s, from Jack's box of photos

Bambi says those bikes are still in the garage.

She'd had her eye on him for quite a while. According to Bambi:

They lived a block away from each other in Queens Village. Mom was on 215th St and 89th Ave and Dad was on 216th St and 89th Ave. Mom would see Dad around in the neighborhood. I think she decided at an early age (like 14) that he was the one for her, but she didn't actually "meet" him until July 4, 1935 when she was 17 and he was 23. [Bambi's quotes in blue; Ann's in red.] In Ann's words:

"George lived on 216th and there was a stationery/candy store on 217th and 90th? that all the neighborhood teens hung out at. I used to see him there and liked him. Thought he was the one for me. I went to Walcliff pool with friends on 4th July and bumped into George there. I dove off the high board and bumped into him on the way up. We talked, and he walked me home, and never got away."

1960 - 1965

George carried this photo in his wallet, his favorite picture of Ann. He took it with a timer.

　"Hugh McDougal was a neighborhood friend of George's. Nice looking guy but I had no interest in him, only George. Hugh was walking with me one day on the way home and he grabbed me and kissed me and I slapped him - slugged him really. Hugh protested why I hit him because he saw me on the front stoop at Gracie's house sitting on George's lap. And I told him that that didn't count because I was going to marry George. Hugh asked if George knew that.....I told him not yet. Hugh never bothered me again."

Mom used to say she and Dad rode [the bikes in the photo above] all over Long Island when they were dating. Mom's afraid of bridges and she said one route they used to take they had to go over this wooden bridge - the kind you could see the water below thru the slats - she was scared to death and only for my father would she cross it (walking not riding). Aaahh, the things we do for love.

1945

George and Ann were married during the War in a ceremony in the rectory of a church in Syracuse with sister Vera the family witness. Grandpa was opposed so Ann and George eloped.

Christmas, 1945

George was stationed in Gulfport, Mississippi in 1944 and 1945 and Ann joined him there. They moved back to Queens after the war.

Ann and George and Nancy (another Anna Marie), Christmas 1945