Mary Victoria Munro

 

Mary Victoria Munro was born November 12^th, 1898 at Crystal Springs, and she was named after her grandmother, Mary McCallum Montgomery, and her aunt, Mary Montgomery Robb. She was a beauty and a rebel. She loved cooking, knitting, sewing, and caring for her family. She also loved dancing, night life, and a man who could show a girl a good time on the town. Family legend has it that, when Mary walked down a city street, cat calls and whistles followed. Yet, when her brother was very sick, she quit school and took over care of the household and the youngest children, while her mother nursed John through his illness.

 

 

Automobiles and motorcycles were fairly new inventions when Mary was a teen. Her father had heard of a motorcycle, but had never seen one. One day he was working at the Lindquist home, where the Point White Community Dock is located today. At the time, the “road” was a dirt track or path that ran along the shoreline. He was hard at work when he heard a motorcycle coming up the road. He stopped in his tracks and watched until it was out of sight. Imagine such a contraption! A short time later it came racing down the road with a beautiful girl sitting on the back, and her red hair streaming in the wind. It was his daughter Mary!

 

For a short time, Mary was married to Grant Kelley and they lived in San Francisco. She returned to Bainbridge expecting her first child. Something untenable had happened and when Grant came looking for her, her father escorted him off the property at gun point.

Her daughter, Janet, was born April 6^th, 1917 at the family home and was raised with the youngest of the Munro kids, while Mary went to work as a seamstress at Sam Fitz Tailor and Uniform Shop in Bremerton, tailoring suits and naval uniforms.

For years, when family and neighbors took the boat to Bremerton, their first stop was Fitz Men’s Shop on Washington Avenue near the head of the ferry dock, to say hello to Mary.

 

In 1927, Mary married Amos “Ross” Black. He was President of the First National Bank of Bremerton and they lived a comfortable life.

Ross was the youngest child of Clara (Richardson) and Amos Ross Black. His father was a wealthy Pennsylvania Oil Producer. In about 1880, he moved his family to eastern Colorado and helped found the town of Lamar, and he ranched on a grand scale on the A.R. Black Ranch. Ross was born on the ranch in 1886, the youngest in a long line of children. When his oldest sister married in 1888, every detail of the opulent wedding was described in the local paper:

Wednesday evening at half past five the marriage of Mayor A.E. Bent and Miss Maud Black was celebrated at the residence of the bride’s parents three miles east of town… The day was one of Colorado’s most beautiful, and early in the afternoon carriages, bearing over one hundred friends of the family and the happy couple, rolled out of the city and soon arrived at the spacious residence of A.R. Black where everything in keeping with the event in the most minute particular was visible. It was the wedding night of a lovable and accomplished daughter and at a glance it was evident that neither time, trouble, or expense had been spared to make the occasion perfect in every detail…

Ross grew up on the ranch. Then, in about 1905, he and his parents moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He soon began a career in banking. By the time the census-taker came around in 1920, he was living in Bremerton. When his first wife died in 1926, Ross was forty years old and alone. Then he met Mary Munro.

 

They had two children together, Amos and Truman.

      

 

 

 

 

 

During the Depression, like all banks, the First National Bank of Bremerton was audited. Mysteriously, the auditor’s report was lost or delayed and that created panic among the account holders. There was a run on the bank, and it was forced out of business. A short time later the report surfaced, showing that the bank had been sound – but it was too late. Family legend has it that Ross put in over $50,000 of his own money, trying to save it.

Mary and Ross moved back to Bainbridge and built a beautiful home on the family place, next door to Mary’s mother. Ross was an avid golfer, and one of the Founders of the Kitsap Golf and Country Club. He served as its president through the Depression years.

In 1941, the British naval ship “Warspite” came into Puget Sound and was anchored in front of the family place at Crystal Springs. The Warspite had been badly damaged by German aircraft during the Battle of Crete and was forced to “lighten ship”, tossing everything expendable overboard, including the sailors’ warm pea coats. The United States had not yet entered the War and was still considered neutral, but the Warspite limped into Puget Sound and our shipyard took over. Winter was setting in and the men didn’t have warm clothes or coats. So Mary and others in the neighborhood organized knitting parties to make sweaters for the British sailors. They were forever grateful. The Warspite was refitting at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on December 7^th, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

 

Ross Black died suddenly in 1942. One of the songs they sang at his funeral was “I’m heading for the last roundup.”  

 

Mary soldiered on, going back to work at Sam Fitz Tailor and Uniform Shop, and raising her sons – with help here and there from her family.

 

In 1951 Mary married Ellis Patton, a Navy Chief Petty Officer and a Pearl Harbor hero. At their wedding, he was dazzling in his full summer whites. Pat became a much-loved character in the family. For many years Pat and Mary helped raise their blended family of children and grandchildren, and they usually had one or two living with them at any given time.

 

 

Ellis Patton was in the U.S. Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7^th, 1941. The Japanese attack began early that Sunday morning. Pat and his buddies were on shore leave and they woke to the sounds of incoming aircraft. The men ran to the street and flagged down a taxi. A military police officer jumped in with them. When the driver refused to take them anywhere near the chaos, the M.P. pulled his service revolver and commandeered the cab.

At the Harbor they found a Navy motor launch and used it to reach one of the ships that was still afloat; and then headed to their “normal” work stations, while the first attack raged on, followed shortly by a second. Pat was a machinists’ mate and was in the below-decks engine room helping to get the ship underway. He was not injured, and he did not consider himself a “hero”. 

Pat survived the entire War and came home to “have fun and enjoy life”. He and Mary had a great life together and Pat kept us all laughing. To the Munro family, he was a hero and we loved him a lot.

When Mary’s granddaughter, Sharon, was a young girl, she would often meet Mary at the Point White ferry dock and chat as they walked home. Mary always made her feel safe, so special and so loved.

 

Pat and Mary were always up for a party – and the day really didn’t begin until the sun was past the ‘yard arm’. Mary played a mean game of poker and loved to bet on the horse races. Pat was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and in the early ‘60s they took several trips to see the Kentucky Derby.

When Pat came home and went into the kitchen for a bite to eat, Mary would hurry to check his shoes. That’s where he kept his money. She would use a knitting needle to recover the cash in the toe and put it away for more important things.

Mary was gifted at sewing, knitting and crochet. During the late 1950’s, she made sweater coats for the men in the family, maybe fifteen or twenty in all. Ralph chose a ski design, and she made his with skiers on it. Through the years she continued knitting sweaters for her grandchildren.

 

 

 

She was a gifted gardener, and her yard was overflowing with gorgeous flowers. She was also an avid fisherman and clam digger. Around the house she wore conservative, floral print housedresses; but when she was headed to the beach she would change into an indescribable “get-up” that included the warmest and most tattered of her wardrobe, including an old house dress and rubber boots. Her brother, George, would help her get her boat in and out; and she would row out and catch trout. She loved to fish.

 

If you stopped by Mary’s house for a visit, there was always a tea pot going and she would offer everyone a cup of tea. And there were always fresh-baked sugar cookies in the jar. Christmas presents to the youngsters were usually underwear. Often Mary and her sister, Isabelle, would sit at the kitchen table together drinking tea, reading the tea leaves, and laughing about stories of long ago.

Her Great-Granddaughter Vicki recalled:

When we would visit Grandma Mary, she would wait until Grandpa Pat was out of the room; then she would pull money out of her brassiere and give us a few dollars. She would always say “Never let on wee pets!”

My brother and I loved playing under her table and our imaginations would run wild on whether we were fighting off Pirates or slaying Dragons, and Grandma would share in our adventures. I loved going to her house. As soon as you walked in you felt at home and loved.

Her granddaughter, Ronda also has fond memories:

Grandma would take the grandkids down to the beach and go clam digging. Afterwards she would steam all the clams and let us have all we could eat until our bellies were full. She would also take us out in her rowboat, trolling for fish. I can’t remember if we ever caught anything!  I remember the 4^th of July celebrations Grandma Mary put on with all the family and relatives – with Grandma cooking, and running in and out of the house – feeding the masses in-between trying to see and greet everyone with huge hugs. We would also partake in the fresh Cherries outside her house (from the trees that her father and uncle planted). Later we would go down to the beach and build a huge bon fire and shoot off fireworks. Maybe even have hot dogs and S’mores. It’s a very special memory of her and the family all being together. She was a very beautiful, loving and caring grandmother. 

And Shelley:

Grandma Mary was incredibly devoted to the entire extended family and deferred to her siblings to do what was best for everyone. She would have easily been considered a professional seamstress. She was also skilled in crochet and knitting. My favorite memories of her were learning how to swirl our tea in the teacup saucers; the beautiful handmade kilts, dresses, sweaters and slippers she made; and rowing a boat in the sound so I could troll for fish. Of course the annual Fourth of July family reunions were the most amazing events. The cooking never ended and so much from that little kitchen!

Pat and Mary lived out their lives at their Bainbridge home. Mary passed away on March 17^th, 1988 and Pat followed on June 12^th, 1988.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Sharon Basden, Victoria Jacobsen, Shelley Black-O’Toole, Rhonda Black Cullup, Aaron Patton, Mary Black Ronhovde and Jennifer Black Goldsmith for their contributions to “Mary’s Story”.