I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead by Charles Tranberg Read Free Book Online Page A

the emergency had
passed and that there was no reason for her to come at once. Mollie wrote
to Agnes on Miami Valley Hospital stationery:
    My Dear Agnes,
I didn’t intend to . . . frighten you so last night . . . for I didn’t want that
word to go over the telephone but as you know what happened why you are
prepared for the worst if things don’t go on well. I came down early and
Margaret is sleeping — had a fair night. They kept her doped and we have
two good nurses . . . we will send for you if we think things are going
against us. Mother came and is at the house, we dad and I can take turns
being here. I in the morning and he in the afternoon. Peg realizes now what
a mistake she made and says she was to blame and wants me to forget all
the trouble which I told her I would and ask her to forgive me for being
crass and unreasonable. I told her, she and you were the only things we had
in the world and we couldn’t lose her. She said she would fight and has
been. She says she took care of a girl who was worse than she is and she
pulled through. Agnes, I think Frank was cruel to her, for out of a clear sky
he said they would quit and she fainted and he never called me. And if he
had I could have watched her. I’ll try to keep calm and keep your dad
cheered up. Please think of us . . . He (her father) has been a peach and he
directed things when we needed a cool head around. Let us hear from you.
We all send love.
Lovingly yours,
Mother
This letter raises some questions. For one, who is Frank? It doesn’t
appear from obituaries that Margaret was married, so Frank could have
been a suitor. Mollie writes that Frank was “cruel” to Margaret and said
they would “quit” — does that mean that he told her they would break up?
It appears that after Margaret got this rejection, she fainted — or perhaps
had her seizure — but there had been a delay in getting her help. Mollie
also mentions that Margaret said she had “took care” of a girl “worse than
she,” which indicates that perhaps Margaret had been a nurse. Finally, what
was Margaret asking forgiveness from Mollie for? Was there a family
disagreement, along with a romantic rejection, which might have led to
Margaret’s attack?
According to the Reedsburg Wisconsin Times issue of July 19, 1929,
Margaret died on Monday, July 15, from a severe heart attack which had
struck on Wednesday, July 10. She was only 26. Agnes had been summoned
by telegram to come to Dayton the day before her death and, leaving
immediately, she arrived just before Margaret died.
Margaret’s passing hit Agnes hard. She wrote of her feelings in her
AADA notebook shortly after the funeral: “A week later — so many things
have happened and my own dear sister — where are you? Where can you
be? . . . How brave and courageous you are — to face death so young — how
you know our maker — the secret of life and death — you know . . . How
I wanted to see you — and yet the thought of seeing you . . . was beyond my
strength . . . I loved you — I love you now — you asleep in a little cold bed
in a tomb like the good father who created you. And you were beautiful . . . I
only wish you could talk to me sometimes . . . I know you are alive and well
and even so much better off than we. If you could only have come to us . . . Men
are so heartless — so cruel . . . Poor dear little girl, how your words of last
year ring in my ears, “you never loved a man like I have” — now you know
I have . . . your spirit will know -now you know how I feel toward Jack . . . My
little sister — I love you so — I have always loved you and prayed for your
happiness . . . I dreamed of you last night . . . I love you.” It is a sad and
anguished letter — hard at times to decipher. But many of the
sentences are clear as a drum, and the agony that Agnes feels engulfs the
reader. In the years which followed, she rarely spoke of her sister. (Since the
first edition of this book came out many