Before anyone carried a cell phone around in their pocket, encountering a celebrity meant asking for their autograph or perhaps just chatting with them for a few minutes. My grandmother Cordelia Henderson Thompson encountered a very famous singer/actor when she was going through a very difficult time in her life in the late 1950's. Her husband, my grandfather, had developed emphysema and was an invalid for about the last ten years of life.
I was scrolling through looking for a movie to stream the other night and I saw that White Christmas was an option. One of its stars was Bing Crosby, who was a huge movie star starting in the early 1930's. He almost always sang in his movies. He sold tons of records. Even though he had pretty much quit making movies when I was a kid, and his records weren't charting any more, I watched his Christmas specials every year. I loved his smooth baritone voice. He sang easily and seemingly effortlessly but I can tell you as a trained singer myself, making it look easy is the toughest trick to pull off.
I didn't know until I was in my 20's and my mother and I were watching White Christmas on TV that Bing was the all-time favorite singer of Grandmother Cordelia.
I also never knew any details of the death of my grandfather because Dad would never talk about it. Dad was only 27 when Grandaddy died, and it haunted him.
My mother knew a great deal about it because she was there when Grandaddy passed and she had watched Cordelia struggle to nurse her husband. Mom was only married to Dad a couple of years when Cordelia died but they had become great friends and Mom talked about her often, to me. I am named for her, in spirit. My name is a shortened version of "Cordelia."
Mom said the love story between Cordelia and Thompson was extraordinary. They didn't meet until Grandaddy was 35 and Cordelia was about 31. At that time she was considered an old maid, certain to never marry, according to the standards of the day. Grandaddy had never married likely because he sent money home to support his mother after his dad died.
They married in 1922 and had my uncle Lewis in 1923 or 24. My grandfather was not an education man and he had always struggled to find work. Cordelia came from a prominent family and had attended college and was a successful teacher. Despite those differences, it was true love match.
When Thompson was hospitalized sometime in the mid 1950's Cordelia sat with him all day in the hospital. She told my mom years later that she was coming out to get into her car one day and saw two golfers walking along on the adjacent golf course, and she realized it was Bob Hope and Bing Crosby! They were friends in real life as well as co-stars in the movies. They were both golf fanatics. They saw her and they walked over and chatted with her for a few minutes. She said they were really kind and friendly. She was going through a seriously difficult time in her life -- Grandaddy would die just a couple years later -- and both those superstars took the time to chat with her. I love that story. I now think of it every time I see a mention of Bing or Bob or White Christmas, one of my all-time Christmas songs. You can sing along with the song if you click here.
#bingcrosbyencounter, #bobhopeencounter, #atruebingcrosbyfan, #whitecristmassingalong
