Wilmington, NC 10 - Much Ado About Murder

better.”
    “And we’ll close this year with TA’s production of the new musical Love’s Labour’s Won . How cool is that? Critics will come from all over the world,” I said. “Who would have ever thought. ”
    “In a couple of weeks the mayor will issue a proclamation,” Jon said, “ proclaiming that 2013 is the year of the Thalian Association. We ought to have a Town Crier proclaim 2013 is the year of Ashley and Jon.”
    I pulled him close to me. “Every year is the year of Ashley and Jon.”

NOTES

    I am often asked how much of “me” is in my works. In the late Eighties, I lived at 34 Beekman Place in New York City. Across the street from my apartment stood a stately brick single-family home, a rarity in NYC. The residents of that home were Irving Berlin and his beloved wife, Ellin . Mrs. Berlin passed away in 1988. Mr. Berlin remained alone in the home with attendants and care givers. He was, after all, one hundred years old. Mr. Berlin liked to take leisurely walks on the arm of a nurse around the neighborhood late in the afternoon. I often passed him on Beekman Place, or over on First Avenue. I would smile at him. He would look intently into my face. Perhaps I reminded him of someone from his past, for he gave me long, inquiring gazes from those piercing, dark, hooded eyes of his under their thick bushy brows.
    I remember when he passed away at age one hundred and one. There was a candlelight vigil outside of his home that lasted far into the night. The lights on Broadway were dimmed and everyone felt the loss.
    At the same time my physician was Catherine Hart, M.D. Cathy is the daughter of Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle. She confided that Ellin Berlin was her godmother.
    Another part of “me” in the book is the story of Captain Jonathan Wood’s adventure while sailing the brigantine Rebecca on her maiden voyage from Philadelphia to Barbados and the return voyage where they were captured by a pirate vessel. Jonathan Wood was my fifth-great-grandfather. His title was Master of Vessels.

    SOURCES

    The Wilmington Daily Journal
    Wilmington Commercial
    Chronicles of the Cape Fear River , James Sprunt , 1916
    The Thalian Association of Wilmington, North Carolina , James Green Burr, 1871
    North Carolina : A Guide to the Old North State , Federal Writers’ Project, 1939
    Annual Report, American Historical Association , 1896
    North Carolina: The Old North State and the New , Vol. 2, Archibald Henderson, 1941
    The American Historical Review , Vol. 21, John Franklin Jameson, 1916
    Something Life , Alfred Moore Waddell, 1908
    The Reviewer , Vol. 5, Emily Clark, 1925
    New Hanover County : a brief history, Enoch Lawrence Lee, 1971
    History of the Washington National Monument , Fredrick Lovead Harvey, 1902
    The Surprising Adventures of the Brigantine Rebecca , The American Antiquarian Society, Joseph Carson, 1950
    The Old North State in 1776 , Volume II, Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, Hayes & Zell, 1856, pp. 197-200