Buddy G: March 2014

Beatrice Marie Golden, aka Buddy Golden, was born in 1892 in New York City. Her parents, Michael Patrick Golden and Mary Carroll Golden, had emigrated from Ireland and settled in Manhattan. Nan, as she has been known to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, had two older sisters, Helen (Nell) and Mary (Mamie).

1914, two years after the sinking of the Titanic, was an important year in Nan’s life, New York City was bustling. It had a population of about 5 million people. As labor organization was strengthening—perhaps in response to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire—and World War I was igniting Europe, a 34-year-old reformist mayor, John Purroy Mitchel, was sworn into office. This year also saw the first transcontinental telephone line between New York City and San Francisco; the first ships began passing through the Panama Canal, and Charlie Chaplin debuted as “The Tramp” in Kid Auto Races at Venice.

Yorkville, where Nan grew up, had become a home for both Irish and German immigrants, and it is in this area of town that Nan and her sisters lived.

A street in Yorkville circa 1914. (Courtesy of Ephemeral New York.)

By the time Nan was in her early teens, both of her parents had died, and so her older sisters, Mamie and Nell, took charge of Nan's upbringing. According to the family story, a relative who owned or managed a tavern gave the three sisters a room to live in above his establishment.

Now Buddy, or Bud as she was known by friends and family, was fond of music and dancing. One story has it that she wanted voice lessons, but could not afford them, so she made the acquaintance of an opera singer at the Metropolitan Opera House and worked out a sort of barter: once each week, on the afternoon when the singer entertained her friends at tea, Buddy would arrive early, make tea and cookies, serve the company, and then clean up. For this work, she would receive a weekly voice lesson.