Each summer I would anxiously await the raising of the U.S. flag on Fridays when Ilona and her husband, General Donald Dawson, would arrive and settle in for the weekend.
I have no idea what the couple did while in residence. I never saw them out and about. Nevertheless, I learned a few years back while researching Chatterton, just how much Ilona was loved in King George during her stay there.
It was a short 10 year period from 1964 when Dawson purchased Chatterton for his wife and when she died of cancer in 1974 at the age of just 62. A heavy smoker, Ilona had a bit of a husky voice, despite her lovely soprano singing voice.
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| The beautiful 1700s manor house, Chatterton as it looked in 1970 at the time Ilona Massey and General Donald Dawson owned the property. (Photo by Elizabeth Rains Johnson) |
She threw herself into the civic life of King George County, embracing the heritage there and loved the little community itself. She campaigned for litter-free roads and she loved animals – proving that hands down when it came to the protection of those that lived on her own property.
Immediately after a prized Angus cow was found dead at Chatterton, Ilona took action. She believed it was errant hunters that had killed the cow and she retaliated by placing an ad in the Fredericksburg paper, The Free Lance Star, in which she called the killers "cowards" and stated, "I KNOW YOU! I will deal with you when you least expect it!"
Massey was well-known in Hollywood for her anti-communist beliefs, horrified by what she witnessed in her home country of Hungary and was quite passionate about expressing her beliefs especially during the McCarthy years.
My long-desired meeting with Ilona would come three years before her death at during a very sad time in my own life.
On May 28, 1971, my beloved "Aunt Lottie," who had owned the farmhouse across the road from Chatterton and from whom we had rented our cabin all those years, passed away at the age of 83. Lottie had requested that my father return from New Jersey, where we were living to conduct her funeral service at St. John's, the little Episcopal Church in King George.
I was 14 at the time, a freshman in high school, and was pulled out of school to make the trip down to Virginia with my parents. We were to stay at Lottie's farmhouse where several of her family members, notably her sister "Dee" were staying, as Lottie's wishes included she be laid out in the front parlor of her farmhouse where her body would overlook the stunning vista of the Potomac River.
I can remember classmates being shocked that I was staying the night in a house with a dead body lying in it, but it never bothered me. I had loved Aunt Lottie in life and would respect her in death. I must say, however, that coming downstairs after the first night, I was a little shocked – but not surprised – to find her cat curled up on her chest in the coffin. Saying his goodbyes I would guess.
I don't remember much of the service, but afterward we returned to the farmhouse for a small gathering and a short while later my mother came looking for me, a sweet little lady in tow.
The lady was none other than my idol Ilona Massey, who had most graciously invited my mother and I to tea that afternoon upon learning of my fascination with her and Chatterton.
I can remember being very shy about it all, but that the house was modestly furnished and beautiful. The views of the river were absolutely gorgeous and Ilona was as gracious and sweet as I'd hoped she would be.
It was over all too quickly and we didn't return to the river but once before Ilona died – I never saw her again. But I've never forgotten her and still have an old TIME magazine article listing the great screen sirens of the 1940s, including dear Ilona in their list of the best and most beautiful.
A reporter from the Free Lance Star wrote about Ilona after Dawson died in 2005, writing that upon the one interview he had with her, she told him "I had a wonderful time in Hollywood. Now I have a wonderful time here."
Massey came a long way from war-torn, poverty-stricken Hungary and managed to become a Hollywood Star and marry the man of her dreams – living out her years on a beautiful, historical estate with its own 250+ year history overlooking the picturesque Potomac River. By then she had become a U.S. citizen, who was quite opinionated in her political views, and she knew it.
Ilona was in Hollywood during it's heyday – she knew Clark Gable, Nelson Eddy, Spencer Tracy and, of course, the Marx Brothers. She stood up to Louis B. Mayer and demanded a raise, which she got; and she entertained the troops overseas during WWII. Wow – I actually got to sit down and have tea with this woman!
As the wife of a U.S. soldier, Ilona was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. General Dawson sold Chatterton after her death and remarried – surviving Massey by 31 years – he is now buried by her side at Arlington.
The niece of dear Aunt Lottie was most gracious in providing me with information on Ilona, as well as the history of Chatterton and the entire property encompassing our cabin, Lottie's farmhouse, Moreland, Dun Roamin' and additional land that I had no idea went back generations in their family. I learned in my own genealogy research that my paternal family history can be traced to Fredericksburg in 1752, when my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Lawrence Wesley Rains, was born on Christmas Day in 1752, along the banks of the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg.
Two-hundred and four years later, I too would be born in Fredericksburg.
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