NORMAN STURGIS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/23/1990 - HFSID 302021
Price: $360.00
NORMAN STURGIS
Description of his trip West to inter the ashes of Broadway actress
Hope Williams
Typed Letter signed: "Tad", 1 page (front and verso), 7¼x11.
Small Point, Maine, 1990 August 23. On personal letterhead to "Dear
Charles" [Forsythe], in full: "Update: We have finally laid
Hope's ashes to rest in her beloved Wyoming after a series of fits and starts.
On 1 Aug Linda and I started west in our camper. We spent three days at
Niagara-on-the-Lake seeing six plays and playing three rounds of golf: The plays
were better than the golf. Off to Stratford to see four plays. We managed to get
in 'Guys and Dolls' (superb) and 'Ah, Wilderness' (so so) when Linda's hip
really began to act up. It had bothered her for some weeks but only off and on.
Playing golf one day at Stratford she really had to quit (I know something must
be terribly wrong for this to happen!) but that night we went to 'Love
for Love'. At the interval we both agreed that we couldn't hear, had no idea
what was going on, didn't really care anyway so back to the campground we went.
That night she was in really bad shape. The next morning we both realized that
we just couldn't go on westwards. To the emergency room at the hospital where
Xrays showed no bone problem but the MD said the pain was probably caused by a
pinched nerve and prescribed exercises. Wrong. We came on back here driving
750miles in 15 hours and arriving soon after mindnight. Linda was able to lie
down much of the time but she was one pained woman, I can tell you. Our doc here
agreed with the pinched sciatic nerve diagnosis so physical therapy was started
and pain killers prescribed. By this time the funeral arrangements were cast in
cement out in Wyoming but the ashes were here. Solution: send the ashes to a
friend in Cody just in case we couldn't get there at all. After two P. T.
sessions it was agreed that while it was not the best idea it would be possible
for Linda and me to fly west, spend a day or two there but not to continue to
Montana to see our sons and their families but to get back here as soon as
possible. So off to Billings on Wed, spend the night, rent a car and drive to
Cody on Thurs to finalize plans for the Saturday 'celebration'. Fri. we drove
150 miles to the stone cutters establishment to pick a suitable gravestone. Back
to Cody to meet our older son and his wife and to share (finally) some of the
responsibility. Linda's back and hip continued to be painful but she kept
herself doped up and could carry on. Saturday was a glorious day - warm and
sunny. The young minister arrived on time in cowboy boots and blue jeans to get
briefed. I think it was his first funeral and certainly the first time he had
faced such a congregation of beautiful people! He fetched his vestments from his
pickup truck and we all assembled around the grave site. Hope's 85 year old
former foreman insisted in digging the grave that morning but out son Nat was
there to spell him so that had been done. After a few prayers, the minister
indicated to me to lower the box containing the ashes into the grave. Well,
these old legs and knees were truly tested but down went the box while I knelt
down on both knees. I heard a woman whisper to her husband 'He'll never get up
from that position'! Wrong, again. The minister shoveled on the first load of
dirt and handed me the spade. I put on a feew and handed it to Nat who finished
the job neatly and speedily. One of Linn's daughters had a small bouquet of
wildflowers which she placed on the grave as did several others and we all left
- a job well done and Hope would have been delighted. A better script couldn't
have been written. The supper for the 35 people who had been there was most gala
in a marvelous new lodge at a friend's ranch. Linn showed slides of Hope's 90th
birthday party at which she had recorded Hope's comments on the pictures.
Marvelous! I read the same passage that Freddy Bradley had read in New York from
Noel Coward's autobiography about Hope. There were a few other short tributes
and then a delectable supper outside with the sun setting behind Hope's favorite
mountain. It was all perfect. Linn told us that you had seen a short thing in
the current 'Playbill' about Hope's death. Could you possibly get me a Xerox of
it for the book we are assembling? We were sorry not to get to Dennis and hope
that you have had an outstanding summer. I also hope that we will have a chance
to meet in NYC sometime but next summer in Dennis without fail. We both send our
very best." Handwritten postscript: "L is back on therapy and
still in pain but she thinks things are improving!" Accompanied by
the transmittal envelope postmarked Phippsburg, Maine, August 23, 1990 and
addressed to Mr. Charles Forsythe, Dennis, Massachusetts. Character actorNorman "Tad" Sturgis (1922-1998) made appearances on many
of the most popular TV series of the late 1950s, including Highway
Patrol, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson and The Twilight Zone.
The "Hope" referenced in this letter was certainly former Broadway actress
Hope Williams (1887-1990), popular in the 1920s and thirties and praised in
Noel Coward's autobiography, who divided her time between an active social life
in New York City and her ranch in Montana. The letter's recipient, Charles
Forsythe was an off-Broadway and regional theatre director and producer. Normal
mailing folds. Otherwise, fine condition.
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