The Francis Boies Penrose Story

I would like to introduce you to my Uncle Francis, he was born in Philadelphia, PA in the year 1867 the 5th son of my grandparents. My Uncle had a beautiful talent, he loved to draw. When my grandparents would go on trips without the kids, their nanny would have them write letters to my grandparents. Francis' letter and envelope would have drawings on them. His nickname was Friday.

My Uncle attended Harvard, two things happened to him there. The first was a fellow student with the nickname "piggy" fell in love with him and constantly sent him letters. My grandfather's advice was to burn every letter and discourage "piggy". My grandfather had plans for his brother Boies to become President of the United States and a scandal like this could hurt him. Uncle Francis did as his father said.

The second thing that happened was Francis became very sick, they called it a brain fever(this is what we call meningitis today and a blow to the head can also cause brain fever). He had to leave Harvard in his second year and went back home to Philly, he was eighteen. My grandfather, who was a doctor, had a cure for everything. A change in climate and hard work were his remedies, so when my Uncle Francis was strong enough he was sent to England. My grandmother, who had died in 1881, had family there.

By 1912 my Uncle was 45 years old. He had married and had children, the last one was a newborn. My Uncle got a job on a ship, its name was "Titanic". There were many people on this ship who knew my family well. The only person who did not take this trip was Rockefeller, he was booked to take it but didn't. The richest men in America had a meeting on the fateful night of the Titanic, even the head of the U.S. Treasury was there. They were going to take their money out of America because the government was going to start taxing individuals. A bomb went off in that room killing every person there.

My Uncle knew of the meeting and went to check on everyone. He saw water and dead bodies.

Everyone knows the rest of what happened except what Washington was doing. The bomb was to go off at a certain time, the President had arranged a meeting with my Uncle Boies (who was head of Naval Affairs) during this time. Uncle Boies gets the message the Titanic is in trouble and the President is not going to do anything. Uncle Boies leaves Washington (the President is pissed) and gets his yacht the "Betty". He is able to save my Uncle Francis and a few others.

Fast forward to Washington, my Uncle Francis and the other surviving employees are taken away where they are questioned. My Uncle is tortured, he keeps telling them what he knows and he keeps saying all he wants to do, is go home to his family. I do not know how long they kept him, he had to sign a paper to never talk about what he knew. At one time they were going to blame my Uncle for planting the bomb then they changed their minds. Note: a messenger was sent to Mrs. Astor to make sure that she never mention the meeting.

They released my Uncle Francis, who was tired, in shock and was mentally plus physically drained. He went home to England, when he arrived he discovered his whole family had been murdered even the baby. My Uncle had a complete nervous breakdown.

My family brought him home to Philly where they put him in a mental hospital. There were parts of the Penrose family that would tell people my Uncle was adopted and he was born in New Mexico, that is not true. They did this because people thought it was bad when a member of a family had to be in a mental hospital.

My father brought my Uncle to Colorado Springs in the late 1930's, my uncle's nurse (who had been on the Titanic and rescued also) took care of him till he died in 1947. Mary Marvin stayed on with my family and my mother appointed her to help Fairbanks and Berkey with the book about my Uncle Richard. This book never mentions the Titanic or the letters my Uncle Richard wrote concerning this incident. My dad had wanted them in the book, my mother did not.

My father made my Uncle Francis' life as pleasant as he could and if you look at the picture of him you can see a gentleness about him. So, that's the story about my Uncle from my father and what happened on the Titanic.

Uncle Boies

My Uncle was the most famous of all the Penrose's. He was a senator, all he really wanted to be was a mayor of his beloved Philadelphia but that was not to be.

In the 1930's a book was written about him, it was a favorite in women's
book clubs because it gave an inside look on Washington. I liked the book, in fact I have a copy of it. Another man wanted to do a book about my Uncle in the 1950's, he was a broadway producer, writer, pretty famous for the time. He came and talked to my father who was excited about the book. But, something happened and the book was never done, in fact I tried to find the guy. The last thing I found was around the late 1950's, someone tried to kill him. I think they succeeded because thats all I could discover. So much for the book.

So, I thought I would share about my Uncle, this is what he did the last year of his life in the senate. That year was 1921:
April - He wanted equality for blacks. he said that they should be equal to whites in hotels, cafes, restaurants, educational institutions and amusements. They fought him hard on this one.

June - He had gotten Mr Mellon in as head of Treasury and he was doing a bang up job, nineteen countries owed us money and Mr. Mellon had worked out a plan for them to pay it back.

My Uncle left Washington to go back to Philly, President Hoover had left my Uncle with no offices in Washington (I find this very odd because Hoover was a geologist like my Uncle Richard and a friend of my Uncle Richard's).

My Uncle helped with the election of the next Governor of Penn. (I think this was the reason he left Washington)

July - He called for disarmament of the U.S. (World War One had ended). My Uncle didn't believe in war. They fought him hard on this one too.

Sept - He installs a movie theatre in his Washington apartments

Oct - He is trying to get tax bills passed, the Soldiers Bonus bill thru and a corporation tax thru.

On Dec. 30, 1921 Uncle Richard stops by to see my Uncle in Washington. My Uncle is in perfect health, great mood and nothing is wrong. At one minute before midnite on Dec. 31st, 1921 my Uncle is dead.

The papers are full that he was sick, poor health blah, blah, blah. Lies, lies, lies. My Uncles Richard and Charles along with my father get together, they hire people to find out who killed my Uncle and who put the contract out on him.

My Uncle had many enemies, there was a senator who was going to be brought up on treason charges, my Uncle stood up for him and with him (he became his friend after that) but that is the way the Penrose's are, even if our enemies are falsely accused we will stand up and state the truth. But, there were two enemies my Uncle had, they were the Vare brothers (one of them was a senator). The Vare brothers were heavily connected with the mafia, Lucky Luciano was a close friend, the Vare boys owned one of the Philly newspapers and they were involved in what was called "the bloody fifth ward". You didn't have to go far to find out that they were the ones that put out the contract.

Why, my family didn't go to the government I'll never know. Maybe it's because of what they did to my Uncle Francis or maybe they felt there was someone higher up involved because the newspapers weren't printing the truth. No matter, they put out a contract on the hired gun and the man that hired him. For them justice was done.

My Uncle was a loving caring person, he had a great sense of humor. In his younger years he wrote plays and poetry, he even wrote a pamphlet for Barnum on elephants (Barnum passed out this pamphlet at his circus). He never married but he had a lot of mistresses. He loved America and he really loved the city of his birth, Philly. He was never involved with the mafia and he never took a bribe. He had a photogenic mind, he would read something and it stayed there, word for word. All the Penroses had this except me, I remember conversations word for word, I guess the gene said "lets skip the reading material and go for conversations instead" :)

So, there you have it my Uncle and the last year of his life. He was a very good man.

What It Means To Be A Penrose

I had the chance to meet a really nice couple a week ago. They had
purchased a teddy bear that came from my father's estate 10 years ago.
As I talked with them, the gentlemen made a statement about being a
Penrose. I just smiled, thinking to myself they have no idea what it means
to be a Penrose, the pain and suffering.

I do not fault people for their thinking, they see all the postives while I have had to live and remember the negatives along with the postives. Isn't that the way it is in every family.

The Penrose family roots start at a Welsh tribe in Wales, we are also related to King John of England from there we came to Philly (before it was Philly) and were shipbuilders. My ggrandfather became a senator and held many poltically offices.My grandfather was a doctor as was my Uncle Charles, Uncle Boies a senator, Uncle Richard a geoloist, my father and Uncle Spence did great things, my Uncle Francis had a nervous breakdown and was unable to do things.

I, however came at a time when things were not so good. Like my father, I was subjected to tests done on me (it was like electric shock). I witnessed my father and a police officer being murdered by another man. I was beaten almost to death, later on I heard the screams of my next door neighbor and her daughter being murdered because "they" got the wrong house. "they" were looking for me. I was given mass amounts of drugs to make my memory go away. At the age of 11 "they" came dressed as a priest and nun (its the only time "they" had a face but I learned "they" were many people). My parents were always talking about "they". So, at age 11 "they" took a large sickle to my insides (when I was 22 I had surgery, the doctor said it looked like someone had craved me up like a Christmas turkey, I cannot have children because of this).

"They" put me in a foster family and stole my inheritance, name and life but "they" could not steal my memories. "They" tried but did not succeed. So, if you think being a Penrose is easy, its
not but I have the memory of a loving, caring father and deep inside me I have the Welsh blood that only those from Wales can understand. I am proud of my roots but it has cost me a lot.

The True Story of the Broadmoor

The Broadmoor Hotel started out as a hotel and casino. Count James Pourtales owned the hotel and casino, he was an old family friend of the Penroses and the house in Philly was always open to him. My grandfather loved it when the Count stopped by. The Count also was a partner in the Commonwealth Mine in AZ. My Uncle Richard sold his shares of the mine to the Count and those shares made the Count a VERY wealthy man.

The old Broadmoor was purchased and a new one built, 1918 was the year it opened. There were 100 Colorado Springs citizens who were investors in The Grand Dame but I only know a few: Spencer Penrose, Charles M. MacNeill, Charles L. Tutt Jr., A.E. Carlton, B.H. Hopkins, Clarence Carpenter and E.P. Shove. Not all of them put in the same amount of money, the biggest investor was Spencer Penrose. One by one the investors died or sold their shares so by 1937 receivership of the hotel was sold, in 1942 Spencer Penrose had his foundation The El Pomar Foundation buy the Broadmoor. So the foundation owned 100% of the hotel.

By 1959 Spencer Penrose was planning on selling the hotel to the Gaylord's, Mr. Gaylord had always wanted to buy the hotel and my father was going to sell it. The plan was to sell the hotel and go to Africa (I don't know why Africa, I know my dad had friends there. I was going to be sent to a school in Europe and I was very excited about it). That plan never happened. So, in 1992 what my dad had planned for the hotel came to be, The Grand Dame was sold to the Gaylord's.

When she was built her capacity was 600, W.S. Dunning was her manager. It was operated on the American Plan (I have no idea what that means) and it had "a la carte" restaurant, the swimming pool's water passed through a violet ray machine to destroy bacteria. The Grand Dame was fireproof, you could play golf, hike or go horseback riding. To make a reservation, you had to write in.

The first time I walked into her lobby, my father said, "I built this." I always called the Grand Dame, the house my daddy built and worked in.

She is a beautiful hotel, she stretches her arms out to give a traveler rest and comfort. She feeds, clothes and cuddles a person as you would a newborn. For me, she has always had a life about her. When the Gaylord's bought her, they gave her much needed care, a facelift and put the crown back on her head. She looks a tad different but still beautiful and she will be here long after we are gone, still giving shelter, warmth and food.