When my mother was born in 1896, my grandparents, Oliver Brady Jackson and Charlotte Ferry Betts Jackson, were living in the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago where my grandfather was superintendent of the Pope Mfg. Bicycle Co. My recollection of my grandmother's story is that they were living on the 7th floor of the Blackstone.

When my mother, Mary Elizabeth, was just an infant, a lady friend came to visit my grandmother one day. During the course of the visit, my mother developed hiccups, and the nursemaid was not around at the time. Neither of the ladies knew very much about babies (this was my grandmother's first), but one of them had heard that if you held the baby upside down, that would cure the hiccups. Apparently, the hotel suite had lovely carpeted floors, and the ladies were concerned about holding a baby upside down over the carpets, so they held my mother--by the ankles--outside the window on the 7th floor until her hiccups subsided.

My mother only lived to the age of 36, but my grandmother lived to within 3 weeks of her 95th birthday, and was very sharp right up to her death.

Any comments or queries are welcomed by Elliot Wilcox.

Return to Notable Women Ancestors.