Vee Andree – New Zealand-born, war bride of World War II – will turn 94 on November 18, 2017. My cousin, Su Scognamiglio, tagged me on this recent photo
of her Mom, my Aunt Vee.
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| Vee Andree, October 2017. Photo: Tami Scognamiglio-Diglio |
I had the pleasure of spending four nights with Vee at her
home in Fort Myers in July of this year. I did not take her to the hair
dresser, or to Mass, even though her Oldsmobile was parked outside her condominium, as I don’t drive in America,
but the two of us pottered around happily together. Here is a photo I took of
Vee enjoying the sunshine in her courtyard:
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| Vee Andree, Fort Myers FL, July 2017. Photo: Ann Barrie |
I'm going to tell you a little about Vee’s family history. Her parents – Margaret MacKenzie, a Scottish nurse from
Lochcarron, and New Zealand sergeant Charles John Herbert – were married in
Queen’s Park parish in Glasgow on June 6, 1919, and they travelled to New
Zealand on the Corinthic in August 1919.
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| Charles John Herbert and Margaret MacKenzie, Glasgow 1919. Photo: Herbert family collection. |
Charles worked with the Public Works Department, and so the
family moved around New Zealand, settling first in Cromwell, Central Otago.
This was where Vee’s older brother, Charlie, my father, was born.
Vee was born Violet Margaret Herbert in Matata, which is on the east coast of the North Island, on November 18, 1923. She was a frail baby – her Aunt Chrissie and Uncle Jack, who minded her while her mother recovered from the birth, had to carry her round on a pillow – but she proved very resilient.
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| Violet and Charlie Herbert with their mother Margaret, 1925. Photo: Herbert family collection. |
Sadly, Margaret MacKenzie died when Vee was only thirteen and Charlie was fifteen.
Their father purchased a house in Riccarton, Christchurch, and arranged for a
housekeeper so Vee and Charlie could finish their high school education.
After the outbreak of World War II, Charlie Senior knocked eight years off his age, enlisted with the N.Z. Railway Operating Company and sailed off to war again. He and Vee were very close, and he wrote to her from Egypt. He died there on February 1, 1941.
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| Sergeant Charles John Herbert, Egypt, 1941. Photo: Herbert family collection |
Charlie
Junior joined the R.N.Z.A.F. and went to Canada to train as a navigator, and
Vee joined the W.A.A.F. in 1943. She used to attend the U.S.O. in Lambton Quay,
Wellington, and there she met Douglas R. Andree from Iron River, Michigan. The
two were married in Auckland on February 11, 1944, and then Doug returned to
active service with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.
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| Douglas R. Andree and Vee Herbert, Oriental Bay, 1944. Photo: Vee Andree collection. |
Charlie Junior returned home from his overseas service in
early 1946, and brother and sister were photographed together in Wellington
shortly afterwards.
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| Vee Andree with her brother Charlie Herbert, Wellington 1946. Photo: Herbert family collection |
Later that year Vee sailed alone to America to join her
husband. Her new life was a steep learning curve. “I had never learned to cook
and so I bought a cook book and found someone to teach me.”
Vee and Doug lived first in California, where my Cousin Su
was born on November 4, 1947. Doug’s naval career then took them to Havana –
Cousin Richard was born in Key West in 1950 – and later to San Francisco;
Kodiak, Alaska; and then Staten Island NY for twenty years.
Vee has lived in Fort Myers FL since the late 1970s. She has
always embraced life with both hands. “I belonged to everything – always have.”
Vee has had careers in several fields including real estate in New York. She
has always done voluntary work – Girl Scouts, the American Red Cross, the
Edison Museum and more. She enjoys the arts and is very creative. Vee visited
New Zealand several times to visit her beloved Aunt Lettie, who lived to be
107, and also her friends Ngai and Jock Ainsworth, all of whom lived in
Christchurch.
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| Vee Andree with Lettie Herbert and Ngai & Jock Ainsworth, Christchurch. Photo: Vee Andree. |
For years Vee would telephone my husband Bill and
me every month. “Hello, Miss Ann,” she would say. It would be the early hours
of the morning in Florida, and I would quiz her about family history, and we
would chat at length.
My son Charles and I visited Vee in Fort Myers in 2013. I presented
Vee with the R.N.Z.A.F. flag that I had, at her request, ordered from a New
Zealand flag maker (she had been doing some advance planning for her funeral). We enjoyed Vee's lively company. Just before I took the following photo, she instructed Charles
to say, “Sex”:
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| Charles Barrie and Vee Andree, Fort Myers FL, 2013. Photo: Ann Barrie |
Then Charles flew to Jamaica, and I stayed on with Vee. She
took me with her to visit the “elderly” at the Assisted Living Facility,
and also to St Luke’s Episcopal Church where she is an active member, and she hammed
it up for me in her Halloween costume.
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| Vee Andree, Fort Myers FL, 2013. Photo: Ann Barrie |
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| Vee Andree, Fort Myers FL, 2013. Photo: Ann Barrie |
We also talked of many things – how her
mother was a career woman at heart, for instance – almost as if I was Vee’s
contemporary.
My visit to Vee in July of this year was poignant, as she
has had some health set backs, but her spirit is undimmed, and she is elegant
as ever. And I found it rather nice, at age 70, to be given a mild scolding by
my Aunt, “Ann, I’m wondering if I should speak to you about your drinking.” No,
darling Vee, there’s no need. It was just so good to be sharing a single malt
with you.”
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| Vee Andree, Fort Myers FL. Photo: Vee Andree collection |
Happy Birthday, Aunt Vee
Buon compleanno
Feliz cumpleaños
Blog by Ann Barrie
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