Kathy's Family

Kathy, Richard and Kristen about 1983

Kristen in 2010 by Aunt Pat.

Stevie and Aunt Pat, 2010

Kathy and Pat 2010

More of Pat's 2010 Pictures

Pat sent pictures of reunions with her sisters last year.

Here are Joan, Pat and Maureen about 1950

2010

Kathy in 1966

2010

Pictures from Pat B

Pat in 1945

Pat sent a Christmas note with photos of her family adventures in 2010.

There were graduations of grandchildren

Birthday parties and reunions

These are scans of photocopies so the picture quality isn't too sharp.

More later.

Snowsuits

Jack about 1940

Joan, Barbara, Bill B.

Pat B

1948

Bill, Barbara, Jane

Cincinnati 1951

Jane and Timmy the Dalmatian 1951

Jane about 1951

The book is probably The Pokey Little Puppy

Tom and Grandma about 1940

Barbara, Joan and Pat

A joke at the expense of Bill

1949

Reunion Party 1980

Aunts Billie and Patty next to Maureen. In front of them on the floor: Michael Neary. Jane sitting on the floor.
Susan Gisiger and Chrissy (or maybe Jamin) in the chair.  On the floor looking at the camera Danny McNally and with his back to us ???


In Jane's photo albums I found these two snapshots of a reunion party labeled October, 1980. I photoshopped both of them to improve the exposure. The one above was overexposed on one side and underexposed on the other so I seamed two slightly improved pictures together.

Then we polled a group of cousins to ask who the heck was there. Kath Bentley says it was at the Bentley house in Smithtown.

The consensus:
On the very back row: Michael Neary and Billy McNally.
Middle Row: Aunts Billie, Patty, Peggy McNally and Edna. Uncle Tommy.
Maureen's standing front and center with a black shirt on and right behind her Susan with her two kids, Jamin on the left and Chrissy behind her. Some thought that might be me---but I don't remember being there. Chrissy does and she says she was standing on a chair.

To the right of Maureen: MaryAnn Neary and then the twins Dolores and Diane McNally with Uncle Pat between them. In front: Danny McNally.

The Beach

Ben and Cele, 1938

Kay & Dot 1938

To go to the beach you had to have an army blanket.

Cele, second from left, and Vera with friends in 1940

Warren in Montauk, 1945

Kansas is almost as good as New York, except we have no beach. Growing up near the beach is a great thing, a constant excuse for a party. Nothing held more excitement for me when I was a kid than the news that we were planning a trip to the ocean and Jones Beach. I always was irritated that Joan had a beach and I did not, however.

Front Row: Who's that baby on the left? Jane is the baby in the middle

Standing: Barbara behind Joan, then Pat with Maureen and Susan

Behind: Steve, Warren and on the right Ben and Bill (?).

1950

Susan, Maureen, Bill and Jane in back, 1966.

Kathy Bentley and Jane

Buddy, Ronnie, Peggy Bentley, Barbara and Peggy McNally, 1978.

 It's not that I liked the sun. I just liked the beach.

The New Yorkers have the proper wardrobes---and tans.

Ben, Moe and Biff, 1966

 Peggy behind Joan and Maureen and Joan's kids.

And who is that with her head turned?

 1978

Cecelias

Saint Cecelia is the Patron Saint of Music

The caption says "Dot, Kay, Cele, Vera, 1938." No mention is made of the banjo ukulele.

When I was young I learned the McNally sisters' names in order as a kind of poetic litany. Marie, Elizabeth, Veronica, Cecelia, Loretta, Margaret, Anna, Dorothy, Kathryn and Patricia---all Saints, all rather elegant and rather old-fashioned. Cecelia, my mother's name, was my favorite. I can still hear her sisters fondly articulating three syllables, Ce-cel-yuh, when they called her, although everyone mostly called her Cele (as in seal).

Cele and Jane 1949

We found a copy of her Baptismal Certificate that tells us where she got the name. Her aunt Cecilia Donohue Valentine was her godmother. On this copy, made in 1937 when she got married, Cecilia is spelled with two i's but Cele's birth certificate shows it with two e's---Cecelia.

Cecelia McNally Brackman inspired her own namesakes---Ben's sister Edie named her only daughter Cecelia---we never call her anything but Cecelia.

Cecelia in 1947

And Kathryn named her youngest Cecelia. We never call her anything but Cece (as in See-See). We don't have any trouble keeping Cele, Cecelia and Cece straight in family conversations.

The name continued into the fourth generation. Kathy Bentley named her daughter Kristen Cecelia.

The most interesting thing I've learned about the name Cecelia lately is that  it's pronounced something like Chinchilla in Italian. Wikipedia explains the pronunciation of Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli's name as tʃeˈtʃilja. It sounds like Chay-cheel-ee-uh to me. The other interesting thing I found in writing this post is the banjo ukulele in the beach picture above. In the family album the picture is so small the ukulele is not noticeable. I would guess that was Cele's instrument. She was, after all, named for the patron saint of music.

A banjo ukulele, according to Wikipedia, " is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. 'Banjolele,' sometimes also spelled banjelele or banjulele is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the 'banjulele-banjo,' introduced by Alvin D. Keech in 1917. The instrument achieved its greatest popularity in the 1920s and '30s, and combines the small scale, tuning, and playing style of a ukulele with the construction and distinctive tone of a banjo, hence the name."

Hats

Bens' sister Edie in hat and outfit 1927

Anna and Aunt Patty in 1945

Going to church one would guess.

Jane about 1952

Pat Bentley, Cele, Barbara and Aunt Ann Dorr

(too bad her hat is cropped out---you know she was wearing one)

1945

Ben's friend Tom Berry and Ben in the top row at the beach with three unidentified hunks---all in headcoverings, in the 1930s.

Cele in 1945

And the most impressive photo in the family album.

Grandma in November 1945 with top hat, cigarette and a bottle of whiskey.