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| Grove Postmistress Jeanne Skinner's Family & Friends Celebrate Her 90th Year |
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
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Photo by
Bruce-Michael Gelbert |
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On the sunny afternoon of August 5, some 41 members of Cherry Grove beloved Postmistress, Jeanne Skinner's family-children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and others, some of them in from Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, California and Hawaii, according to her daughter, Gerri (Gerrodette) MacWhinnie-joined friends and le Tout Cherry Grove, gathering at Dunetop--a Gerrodette family home built on Lewis Walk in 1939, after the great hurricane of September 21, 1938--for a slightly belated celebration of Jeanne's 90th birthday, which actually took place on January 15.
Jeanne Skinner's personal and family story constitutes a virtual history of Cherry Grove as well. Jeanne has been Postmistress since 1966, when she succeeded her mother, Irene Gerrodette, who had served in the position for 45 years. At the party--in addition to the banner, in front of the house, reading, "Celebrating Jeanne's 90th Year!"-there was a photographic retrospective of Jeanne's life and some photos in the display were taken here in the 1920s. Everything from napkins to M&Ms, at the open house and buffet, bore the logo that reminded us about the milestone we were marking.
Jeanne came from a religious family, and some of its members had resisted the community's 'takeover' by gays and lesbians. But Jeanne appears to have more than made her peace with us, even participating, largely thanks to Sal Piro, in Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) shows, at the Community House, and the PAWS (Pines Animal Welfare Society) benefits, and other shows, at the Ice Palace. Jeanne has been featured in each of the 10 APCG shows that Sal has directed, playing everything from a Queen Mother to Lady Godiva to a Rappin' Granny and a "bad to the bone" reform school girl, who has been in so long that nobody remembers what she had done to be put there. Sal calls her his "good luck charm."
A follow-up to the party is to be a Dunes Fund benefit show at the Ice Palace, "A Salute to Jeanne Skinner on Her 90th Year!" on August 18 at 8 p.m., "with performances and testimonials by her many Grove friends."
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