An Enduring Friendship — part one
a note from John:
Judy Reagan sent me a collection of story vignettes tracing the history and friendship between her family and the Coffey family. This posting is the first of three in the series.
To put the stories in perspective, here's a little background: Margaretta Coffey (Glenna's mom) and Hazel Reagan were best friends. Their daughters, Glenna and Frances, were also the dearest of childhood friends. Judy Regan was the sassy tag-along younger sister of Frances. These childhood kinships have turned into lifelong friendships as Judy, Frances, and Glenna have traveled together, continue to chit-chat often and see each other whenever possible. Judy is no longer the tag-along--she's earned herself full membership in the sisterhood.
Thank Judy for sharing this wonderful multi-family history. (This posting is the first of three in a series.)
To: Al, Glenna, Lana, Marty, John, Trip, Jackie, Blair, and Hannah …
I think you might enjoy hearing some things about a friendship between two families that now spans over 80 years. The friendship began with admiration and laughter and continues with the same characteristics.
Margaretta’s Childhood
Glenna’s mother, Margaretta Sanders, was orphaned during her childhood and then raised by her much-older sister, Pearl, who never married (called in those days a “maiden aunt” or “spinster” or “old maid”).
Although I doubt that any of us now living had any encounters with Pearl, we Reagan kids concluded from the sketchiest details that Pearl may have borne some resemblance to the Old Maid in our playing cards. Wow, taking in a whirlwind like Margaretta was surely not an easy transition.
Margaretta and Hazel Meet
In 1921, our mother Hazel Smyth moved to Fort Worth and entered Central High School where Margaretta was a student. There, Margaretta and Hazel became lifelong friends after meeting the first summer at Broadway Baptist Church.
From our standpoint, that friendship was an especially valuable one for Hazel, for she tended to be quite somber and serious, but she could fall down laughing at one of the Margaretta hilarities. Oh, the tales Hazel, then our dad Horace, told us about Margaretta’s pranks and funny observations of life!
A Margaretta Bath
After high school, Margaretta went to Baylor University. In 1928 Hazel attended Baylor for a while to take science classes. Margaretta, and Hazel roomed together with a third young woman named Mary Lou McLemore in Baylor’s Burleson Hall (then the sole girls’ dormitory), sleeping in a screened porch with only one double bed.
A phrase originated during that time which we Reagan children later heard often—a playful accusation that one or the other of us had taken a “Margaretta Bath”. It seems that in the Baylor days, the roommates teased Margaretta that her baths consisted solely of climbing in one end of the flowing bathtub, running to the other end of the tub, and hopping right out. Glenna has described her mom as having done everything fast!
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