Muchen is an article written in 1942 by my late grandmother, Elisabeth Gravely. I would love to share this with all of you.
My grandmother was an aspiring actress while growing up in England and always was inspired by the arts. She was casted in some early British films playing the roles of Bessie Surtees and Grace Darling. (I have looked fervently for copies of these movies, but I haven’t had any luck.)
She moved to America in the late 30’s-early 40’s to marry my late grandfather, Dr. William Gravely. While living in America she started her career as a freelance writer for The Post, and afterwards she subsequently became a famous local muralist, whose work was exhibited in such places as The Capitol Lodge and The Reeve Gouche (a once bustling restaurant located in Georgetown that played host to a number politicians.)
This is one of the few articles of hers that I found while conducting a search on Pro-Quest Research Database about a year ago. Thanks to Dr. Kelly’s History 312 class, I found out about this wonderful tool that led me to a gold-mine.
The fellow Karl that she speaks of was a suitor of hers. The story in my family is that when he visited my grandmother in England, he spent a lot of his time studying the British coast line while sailing with my great-grandfather. As it turns out, he was a spy for the Nazis – or at least this is how the story goes. In a letter written by my great-uncle Nory (or, as he calls himself both “Fish Taco” and “S32″…no, seriously) he mentions this account:
“I think my parents were afraid that E was going to marry Karl when she went on that Munich safari. Before that my Dad had taken Karl sailing on the Walrus all the way up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. Karl took continous photographs of the coastline – even when there was nothing to see except sand dunes. That puzzled everyone. Just recently I’ve been reading about Hitler’s invasion plans of England. The main Nazi thrust was of course to be in the south around Dover, but a divisionary strike was planned from Norway to exactly the northeast coastel area that Karl had been so busily documenting. Little did my Dad know that he was entertaining a spy!” -Nory a.k.a- “Fish Taco”, a.k.a- “S32″