Honoring Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph and Augusta Petrone
Karen and Jay share thoughts in remembrance and celebration of Joe and Augusta
Joe and Augusta Petrone were two of the finest people who have ever walked this earth. So, to honor their memory and to celebrate their lives, we are dedicating the entire Sunshine Report this week. Sharing stories, memories and great pictures of their lives. Their enthusiasm, zest for life and positive outlook touched the lives of so many people across New Hampshire, the nation and around the world. Kind and generous to a fault. Always there to lend support. Moreover, they personified what it means to be an American. Their love for our great country and their patriotic spirit knew no bounds. They were true patriots in every sense of the word. You meet a few people in your life who are the most special and positive spirits on earth. Who radiate warmth, caring and a passion for all that is good in life as well as a heartfelt devotion to America, the cause of freedom and the founding principles that have made our country great. From the first moment that we met in Washington, DC in 1994 to our last lunch together with Augusta and her wonderful sister Mitzi in Dublin several weeks ago, Augusta has been a dear friend, a kindred spirit and a source of boundless joy. We will sadly and deeply miss Augusta and Joe, with his booming voice and generous smile, who passed away in 2016. They just don’t make them any better. We have been truly blessed to know Joe and Augusta, the greatest of Americans and the greatest people we have ever known!
From The World of Mr. Sheraton, by Ernest Henderson (Augusta aka ‘Penny’s – Dad) Penny, our middle-sized daughter, did on one occasion exhibit an unprecedented and seemingly inexplicable interest in her father's business affairs. As a junior at Smith College, she was spending a few days' vacation with us in Boston. Suddenly she developed an astonishing urge to see her father's hotels, particularly the Sheraton-Park in Washington, once known as the Wardman Park Hotel. We had made some major improvements at the Sheraton-Park. The property had been modernized and wholly air-conditioned, and a two-million-dollar banquet hall and spacious exhibition facilities had been added. Eager to see the changes, I took Penny with me to Washington. We arrived late, but this did not discourage my "shameless" daughter. Reaching for the phone, she dialed a number she apparently knew. "Sorry," a landlady told her, “He isn't home." "Shall I call at eleven?" Penny asked. "Sorry," came the voice, "it's an important engagement. He won't return until late." "How about midnight?" Penny tried hopefully. "Sorry," came the reply, "it's a very late business appointment. You will have to call in the morning." With all enthusiasm gone from her voice, Penny consented to join her father in exploring the new banquet hall, one of the largest and most dramatic in the country. A debutante ball was in progress, and we could look down on it unseen from a balcony not in use that night. Eighty of the capital's most luscious debutantes, all in lovely white gowns, were being presented to Washington society, and the climax of the evening arrived as we looked down from our point of vantage. Two great orchestras joined together, the dimmers were set at a level to create the desired effect, and two searchlights cast their beams on the red-carpeted stairway as the first of the eighty debs majestically descended. Her father, an admiral, ablaze with his decorations, was on one arm. On the other was her escort for the evening, a handsome U.S. Army major, a White House aide, bearing the necessary complement of shining gold braid. While a thousand guests below stood breathless, Penny took one look at the tall, handsome major and announced, "I hate him, I hate him." As she went on, I thought I could detect incoherent references to "an important business engagement." The next morning, it seems, an acceptable alibi was forthcoming. Perhaps, after all, the daughter of an out-of-town admiral, lacking a wide acquaintance in the capital, might have been assigned an obliging White House aide, drafted for this special occasion. At all events, all was forgiven, and a year later Penny became the bride of Major J. Carleton Petrone, Jr., a former White House aide. The wedding reception, held on the mall in front of our Louisburg Square home, revived a famous Boston tradition, dormant for over a century. Jenny Lind was married in that same enclosed plot of grass on the side of Beacon Hill, the property of the twenty-two families whose houses abut on Louisburg Square, a garden which visitors to Boston sometimes think of as a small piece of London transplanted to the New World.
Quote of the Week
“The Petrone’s are among the people who changed America — first by their very strong support for Ronald Reagan when people thought that was hopeless, and then by their very strong support for us at GOPAC and with the House Republicans when people thought that was hopeless. So twice they've really, dramatically helped change American history.” — Speaker Newt Gingrich
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