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NORMAN STURGIS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/23/1990 - HFSID 302021

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.

Price: $360.00

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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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