Heavens To Murgatroyd ~ WHAT IS ON HER HEAD?
Luella Jane Ashburn
2nd Cousin 4X Removed
Louella Jane Ashburn (1870 - 1959)
is your 2nd cousin 4x removed
father of Louella Jane Ashburn
father of James Monroe Ashburn
father of Jesse Monroe Ashburn
son of Dabney Anderson Ashburn SR
son of Jesse Ashburn
son of Robert Wesley Sr Ashburn
son of Emanuel Alexander Ashburn
son of John Calvin Asburn SR
daughter of William Esker Asburn
What Is On Her Head?
This is Luella's wedding day photograph.
I'm sure this was probably quite a 'magnificent' headpiece in day -
but 'heavens to murgatroyd' (more about that phrase at the end of this past).
Luella Jane was born on December 24, 1870, in Bloomington, Iowa.
She married Charles Richard Piercy on August 23, 1893 at
Central Grove Baptist Church in Tuskeego, Wright County, Iowa.
The town of Tuskeego has faded from modern day maps of Iowa.
Luella and Charles had five children by the time she was 29.
1893
Double Wedding
Luella and Charles had a Double Wedding Ceremony
with Charles' sister Mary Piercy.
Oh, mercy me….same dress and same beautiful headpiece.
I bet they have on the same shoes, too!
(Mary Piercy and James Auxier on the left - Luella Ashburn and Charles Pierce on the right)
Ellinwood Photography
W.R. Ellinwood, was listed in the
Leon Reporter, Thursday, May 20, 1897 as a photographer.
So he was still in business 4 years after the above wedding.
The information was in a listing of people who had telephones - 34 were then in Leon. W.R. Ellinwood had 2 (one for business and one for residence).
Family Photo Above
Luella and Charles
Children L to R: Golden Hair, Ruth, Jim, and Inez
(YES, her real name was Golden Hair Piercy)
Luella died on October 22, 1959, in Leon, Iowa, at the age of 88.
She was buried at the Lillie Cemetery in Lamoni, Iowa.
…and now a lesson on the phrase
Heavens to Murgatroyd
'Heavens to Murgatroyd' is American in origin and dates from the mid 20th century. The expression was popularized by the cartoon character Snagglepuss - a regular on the Yogi Bear Show in the 1960s, and is a variant of the earlier 'heavens to Betsy'.
The first use of the phrase wasn't by Snagglepuss but comes from the 1944 film Meet the People. It was spoken by Bert Lahr, best remembered for his role as the Cowardly Lion inThe Wizard of Oz. Snagglepuss's voice was patterned on Lahr's, along with the 'heavens to Murgatroyd' line. Daws Butler's vocal portrayal of the character was so accurate that when the cartoon was used to promote Kellogg Cereals, Lahr sued and made the company distance him from the campaign by giving a prominent credit to Butler.
As with Betsy, we have no idea who Murgatroyd was. The various spellings of the name - as Murgatroid, Mergatroyd or Mergatroid tend to suggest that it wasn't an actual surname. While it is doubtful that the writers of Meet The People (Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy) were referring to an actual person, they must have got the name from somewhere.
No fewer than ten of the characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Ruddigore, 1887, are baronets surnamed "Murgatroyd", eight of whom (or is that which?) are ghosts. Herzig and Saidy were well versed in the works of the musical theatre and that plethora of Murgatroyds would have been known to them.
Where then did the librettist Sir William Gilbert get the name? It seems that Murgatroyd has a long history as a family name in the English aristocracy. In his genealogy The Murgatroyds of Murgatroyd, Bill Murgatroyd states that, in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde - literally John of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'.
Whether the Murgatroyd name took that route from Yorkshire to Jellystone Park we can't be certain. Unless there's a Betsy Murgatroyd hiding in the archives, that's as close as we are likely to get to a derivation.
Comments
Post a Comment