Snippet: The Myth of ‘Old Blood and Guts’
“I wish people wouldn’t make him so blood-and-gutsy,” Beatrice told Jane Eads of the Los Angeles Times in April 1943. She knew George Patton was…
Snippet: Swimming with Sharks
Hamana Kalili hoped to find an abundance of ulua, a priceless indigenous Hawaiian fish, when he went to check his lines on the morning of…
The North Shore: Home of the Ayers and the Pattons
The North Shore is a great place to visit, and what’s more fun than visiting the places one has read (or written) about?
Snippet: The Pattons on D-Day
On June 6, 1944, as the cross-channel invasion of France was underway, all five members of the Patton family sat huddled around the radio. The…
Snippet: Like birds on a telegraph wire
A gentle knock on the hotel room door awoke Second Lieutenant and Mrs. Patton, who had been married for less than twenty-four hours. In walked…
When (the war is over,) and If (I survive.)
After crossing the Pacific Ocean twice in a schooner—from Los Angeles to Hawaii and back, in 1935 and 1937, respectively—the Pattons were convinced they wanted…
Patton on the Silver Screen
The inspiration behind the memorable opening scene of Patton is a photograph taken in June 1945 at General Patton’s home in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He…
The Private Patton
Beatrice was one of the few people privy to both the public and the private Patton, two sides which were very hard to reconcile for…
Beatrice Ayer Patton’s Greatest Irritation
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the straightforward narrative—based on hard facts and not unsubstantiated rumors, which read like historical fiction—makes it abundantly…
Spotlight: The Ayer-Tiffany Mansion on Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue
It was said that men who came face-to-face with the Tiffany Chapel at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (a.k.a. the World’s Columbian Exposition) doffed their…
Snippet – A Magical Place Called Avalon
Thirty miles from Boston, in the Pride’s Crossing section of Beverly, stood the Ayer family’s majestic country home. Avalon was a magical place along the…
General Patton’s Poetry “To Beatrice”
George Patton considered himself to “have a hell of a memory for poetry and war.” He liked to pick up the pen and write poetry…
General Patton’s Second in Command
Beatrice Ayer Patton never wanted to be known. All she ever wanted was for people to remember her husband, General George S. Patton Jr. Yet,…
Snippet – The 2nd Armored Division March
For General Patton, there was nothing more beautiful than a well-executed dress parade, especially when his wife composed the music. Beatrice Patton possessed an “artistic…
Snippet – The Tail of a Kite
Beatrice Patton knew after years of experience that the trick was “not to say goodbye at all” but to be “very casual about it.” The…
Snippet – The Birth of Beatrice Banning Ayer
Beatrice Banning Ayer (left) was born in one of the upstairs bedrooms at the Ayer Mansion in Lowell on January 12, 1886. She had blue…
A Freak Accident, A Devoted Wife, And The Death of General Patton
On December 21, 1945, General George Patton died from his injuries sustained in a car accident. His wife, Beatrice Ayer Patton, spent the last eleven…
Frederick Ayer and the Suppression of the 1871 Smallpox Epidemic in Lowell, Massachusetts
Frederick Ayer — born on December 8, 1822, in Ledyard, Connecticut — was a man of character, honesty and hard work. He possessed a “quick…
A Perfect Man at Arms
The modern pentathlon was tailor-made for Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr. Conceived by Baron de Coubertin, the father of the Modern Olympic Games, it tested “the…
The Georgie Patton, the new old fashioned
About three years ago I celebrated my birthday at Keens, a famous steakhouse close to Herald Square in New York City, known for its collection…