Having been part of a Life History Group for over eight years, I am missing our leader Penny. Her death on February 9th was a shock even though she had recently revealed her health problems. I wish we had been able to meet in person again. I can see her now, in her favorite seat at the library meeting room where, with a twinkle in her eyes, she raised her gavel to call the group to order. Everyone arriving in the parking lot would know Penny was there when they saw her little car with the flower on the antenna.
She loved the town of Waldo working tirelessly for its history and publishing a monthly newspaper, The Waldo Phoenix. I subscribed and received a copy near the end of each month. Sometimes she would include a story written by members of our group even though we were not from Waldo. Penny was a giving and selfless person.
She always let us know about the Waldo Historical Society fund-raising spaghetti dinners held at the Waldo Baptist Church in the fall. I attended a couple of these and was treated like a queen with meatless sauce held back for my vegetarian preference. Penny went out of her way to make me feel welcome and appreciated. Her photos in front of the Waldo red caboose are a testament to her dedication to her town.
I learned a lot about Penny from her Facebook posts. She loved posting puns, and she loved the Facebook games. She posted photos of birthday dinners with friends at Red Lobster with her favorite drink in hand, the Margarita. The celebrations always included her very closest friend, Lucy Cook, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. She brought Lucy to one of our Life History Meetings and proudly introduced her to us.
Lucy, Penny & Linda
From Penny’s Life History stories we know she grew up in Branford, Connecticut, and later moved with her family to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. One of the funniest stories I remember her sharing in Life History was about the first house she bought back in the 1960s. From what I could tell it was built by a real novice with the roof line in front and back being so low the windows had to be set lower than normal, bottoms close to the floor. Standing up at the inside edges had to be done carefully depending on how tall you were. Good thing she was short. The house was left completely furnished (an estate sale) and required lots of refurbishing to be livable. After begging and borrowing most of the down payment, she did a lot of the work herself. There was an old stool left in the bathroom, an ugly old stool, wooden with a homemade cushioned top. Trying to salvage everything she could, she decided a paint job and a pretty cushion might make it usable. She ripped off the ugly material and an envelope dropped out with someone’s name on it, a fat envelope. Inside were several crisp hundred dollar bills in numerical sequence. Surprised (very) at first, then she wondered if they might be counterfeit, but, no, they were real. Due to her young age and the time period (1960s), she thought she might be convicted of stealing if anyone found out, so she decided to spend her found money on fix-up expenses a little at a time. And that is what she did, never telling anyone...until us. Her oral version was a whole lot funnier than mine.
In 2007, one of Penny’s brothers passed away, and she fulfilled one of his wishes by publishing his book, posthumously in 2016, See the Man With No Legs Dance by Kit Cawley. You could almost see the love when she told our group about it. It is beautifully done with an exquisite colorful cover to honor Kit’s artistry. I hope Penny’s stories are saved and that someone will honor her with publication although I do not know if that was her wish. At least her stories will remain in our group memories.
Penny was also instrumental in at least two other publications for Waldo, one a 2016 Waldo Historical Society Calendar, dedicated to the Waldo Schools. In June 2015, Waldo saw the final class of graduates at the Waldo Community School. And in February of 2019, Penny along with Linda Hall Vlacos and Kevin McCarthy, co-published Waldo, Florida: An Illustrated History with the famous red caboose on the cover.
I am happy that Penny held our group together during the pandemic with calls for monthly emails for stories. I know now that at times this must have been difficult. In December 2020, she mentioned how much she missed our Christmas celebrations, and in January 2021 her last message to us was about her favorite television shows, Weakest Link, The Good Doctor, Bull, Mom and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I never responded and now, that makes me sad. We will miss you, Penny, your unique sense of humor, your dedication, but mostly, we will miss you.
