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On my mind today
Posted By katie allison granju
It’s hard to keep my mind on political or pop culture news today. My thoughts are with my grandmother, Nancy Anderson, who is having surgery this morning, after breaking her hip over the weekend.
She’s very ill and very frail. Things don’t look good.
My grandmother is the person who has most influenced me. We are very alike - she and I. My family has always referred to me as “little Nancy.”
She grew up in the Belle Meade community of Nashville, riding her pony all over the neighborhood, and roller skating around the ballrooms of some of the city’s grandest houses.
She attended Ward Belmont School, where she was editor of the school newspaper, and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1939 with a degree in journalism and a passion to rake some muck.
Unfortunately, nobody was much interested in hiring a 95-pound, 20-year-old Girl Reporter, so she took the only job she could find, selling advertisements for the local newspaper in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
That’s where she met my grandfather, a millworker’s son who jumped out of airplanes for fun and profit. She eventually broke into journalism, becoming a writer and editor with several daily papers across the southeast, and ending up as editor of Photoplay Magazine, the premier entertainment magazine of its day.
She spent many years living and working in Hollywood, getting to know lots of fascinating movie star types, as well as many of their secrets. (Here’s a story the AP did recently on her friendship with Elvis and his family) She also had a long-running syndicated column, and a thriving freelance career, traveling the globe on movie junkets well into her 70s.
I used to love to sit at her feet, under her big desk as she worked. She’d type out her stories on her old manual typewriter, and I’d scribble my own stories on notebook paper. She always praised my nascent journalistic efforts with freshly baked cookies, which she found time to bake for her grandchildren, despite her busy career.
She’s a remarkable woman.
Did I mention she was also an active runner well into old age, and after her semi-retirement back to Middle Tennessee, she never missed a DAR or Garden Club meeting? She knits a mean sweater, too.
Here are a few photos of her at work over the years.
Mar 18th, 2008
I love the photo with the typewriter. You are very, very fortunate to come from such a good family. I hope the surgery goes well and that your grandmother has a speedy recovery.
My thoughts and prayers are with your Grandmother today, Katie.
My thoughts and prayers with you and your family I love the picture with Gabe Caplin being a poker player like Gabe myself . After reading about your grandmother she as all the traits of a good poker player herself. Tough and fiesty not afraid to take chances.
I am in complete and utter awe.
…and I just said a prayer for her. And for you.
A lovely tribute. Many get well wishes for Ms. Anderson.
Wow, those are some awesome photos. The one at the typewriter is a classic. The celebrity shots are something else. Elvis is the icing on the cake. Wishing her the best for a full and speedy recovery.
What a lovely tribute to your grandmother. Thank you for sharing her story with us. What amazing experiences she has and will have. Please know she is in my thoughts and prayers (as are you).
That is a beautiful tribute. I hope all is going well for her (and you). The photos are priceless and I feel fortunate that you shared them with us. Like most, I am in love with the typewriter photo. And, while the Elvis shot is a classic, I am personally enjoying the thought of your grandmother sharing a Coors with Mary Poppins.
We’ll be thinking of you and her in the coming days. Best wishes to your whole family.