General Notes

My Grandma (Agness' sister - half sister...whatever) told me that Agness had a real "head for business".  She  managed a "lunch counter" in the city (in the theater district), and because of that, she had quite a few interesting happenstances. 

I believe that Agness was married to John (?) when this happend...Idon't think she was (or anyone else at the time was) the kind of woman to let this happen unless, she were married.  Bing Crosby slept on her floor!  He was at the time working the Vaudville circuit, and his name was something along thelines of "Benjeri Cruseri"?  (he changed his name to "Bing Crosby").  He was really, really down on his luck - and drinking alot when this happened.  From what my Grandma told me, he married  a woman who "came from money" and she reallyshaped him up.  Anyway, he came in and either paid for lunch, or worked for it, and then (if I remember correctly) proceeded to get smashed, and she took pity on him, and let him sleep on her living room floor.

Agness also loved animals...so did her mother (my great-grandma).  I remember visiting Agness in Florida.  She had a mobile home there, and she had a little bull dog.  She also hada picture of three dogs, and depending on how you looked at the picture, you could see something different...it was either the three dogs or...a lady...with a feather in her hat? - a Victorian lady?...big hat...Well, I was only nine years old or so.

Agness adopted several dogs while she lived in New York and worked in the Theater District.  One in particular stood out to my Grandma (who really didn't care a whole lot about animals - not that she was mean to animals because she was not - but especially didn't think much of dogs)...(can't say that I blame her)...
Agness has a dog who was so smart that everyone said he must have escaped from some kind of show - maybe he did tricks or something.  Thisdog would do what you see in the cartoons:  Agness would pin a note with some money to his collar(?) and send him to the market for whatever she needed--evenbeef!  The dog would come home with whatever he was supposed to, but she had better not forget to reward him.  The few times that she didn't, he made sure that he relieved himself in her shoes - her work shoes. 

Another story about the same dog is how he protected Agness' apartment.  (Agness never had children(human children), and I'm not sure if anyone really knew why; but she did think of her animals as her kids.)  She lived in a time when certain people had what was called "Chinese Laundry":  someone would come and pick up the laundry (ina bag - I suppose) from your house.  Well, Agness and John(?) were working so the laundry person had to go into the apartment (on his own) and pick up the bag to take it to be cleanned.  The dog had no problem letting the guy in, and most people would think - "what a crappy watch-dog", but the dog would not let the guy leave.  If the man had dropped the bag; conjecture is that the dog probably would have let him go.  But, the dog did not want to let someone in the apartment, and then let that person take anything(steal) from that  apartment.