IN MEMORIAM
|
MILDRED A. CLUNE
SKOLNICK MITCHELL MAY 10 1916 - OCTOBER 17 2007 |
Mildred (left) with her Mother and Brothers on the Knapp Estate in 1921
IN MEMORIAM
|
MILDRED A. CLUNE
SKOLNICK MITCHELL MAY 10 1916 - OCTOBER 17 2007 |
Mildred (left) with her Mother and Brothers on the Knapp Estate in 1921
October 18, 2007: As I was putting the finishing touches on "Business As Unusual" Chapter 25 of The Knapps Lived Here manuscript this morning, and about to start Chapter 26, which I already had decided will be titled "The Clunes Lived Here" my e mail light came on. The message was from Kathy Clune and the subject was "Sad News"
Kathy informed me that her Aunt Mildred had passed away in her sleep last night.
I will always be very indebted to both Kathy and her Aunt Mildred for playing a big role in helping me to write this story. I spoke with Mildred for the first time on the phone in May of 2005. It was either her birthday or mine , as we are just one day apart there. We had a great talk that day and when I learned her parents were Dodi Knapp's caretaker and cook and that she lived as young girl in the 1920's right on the Knapp Estate in Mastic Beach it seemed hard to believe. She also cleared up a Knapp mystery for me, far more important than who burned the Knapp Mansion down in 1959 (which I already had discovered by the time we met). Her conversation turned some original assumptions, I made in 2001 about Dodi Knapp into eye witness facts. For just that alone I will always be thank full. But I also must say I was very happy that Mildred & I had several warm phone conversations and got to exchange letters over the last two years.
You can meet the Clunes and see some of their rare family photos of the way things were when they first lived there before there was anything even called Mastic Beach.