Genealogy of Four Alices

GENEALOGY OF FOUR ALICES.

ALICE KEENE, born 1858-9, daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte Keene and Anna Elizabeth Martin, was the most mischievous one of the 7 girls, and also the tallest.  When her father said he would spank her for her pranks, she threatened "I will pee on your white pants!" and he abandoned the idea. (A11 gentle­men in New Orleans wore white linen suits most of the year.) She and Laura showed their French blood by having the blackest hair I have ever seen, and the blackest eyes that "sparkled and shone like chinquapins on a frosty morning" so Dr. Samuel Crockett Gleaves said when he described Laura Keene to his son, Charles W. Gleaves. Their mother, Anna Elizabeth Keene, was tall, with dark brown eyes and medium brown hair, both same coloring as Anna Bob Rich. Alice had a suitor in New Orleans names "Turnbull" which she considered such a terrible name she called him "Tourner Taureau" the French for it, as all of them spoke French as fluently as English. One day when too many of them were crowded into a carriage, and Alice's hips were hanging out, Laura said, "Alice, here comes "Tourner Taureau” and your figure is hanging out of the carriage!"  Laura was the shortest of the 7 girls, the only one to have an 18 inch waist, a brilliant pianist, and best dancer of all. Alice said Laura had 101 proposals and she could name them all.  Alice married James Addington and had an only child named

ALICE VIRGINIA ADDINGTON, only person in family who was an only child and so anxious for a sister that when walking on street with her cousin, Anna Gleaves, she would say, "Now when we pass those people coming, you call me "Sister" and they will think I have a sister!" Her mother died when she was teen age and her father had died before that. She lived with her Aunt Lucy Richards, in Chicago, became engaged to a man in late World War, and Aunt Lucy chaperoned her to Camp to see him.  After War was over she married him. Her parents lived in Norfolk, Va. She was born about 1892.

ALICE MARY GLEAVES, daughter of C. W. Gleaves and Laura Keene, was named for Aunt Alice Keene Addington and Aunt Mary Crockett. She is a talented artist and violinist. Her Aunt Alice said, "Laura, if you name that child for me, she will never be able to spell!" And she never could and neither could her Aunt Alice.  She kept house for her father many years, loved to raise flowers, pheasants, chickens and cats, and worked very hard entertaining her six nephews and nieces on their annual visits.  She had more beaux than any of her sisters, and still can name them, although she is past sixty years of age.

ANNA ALICE SAMPSELLE, daughter of James Vernon Sampselle, and Anna Bob Rich, sweetest, cutest, dearest baby ever born in King's Daughters' Hospital, Staunton, Va!

                                   Anna Gleaves Rich (Mrs. J. R.)

                               May 13, 1947