Agnes Gray

In 1944, Agnes Gray had a fortune teller come into her beauty shop and she read Agnes’ future.  The fortune teller told her that she would be married within 6 months.  At the time, Agnes was living alone and the owner of her own beauty shop. She had raised her daughter (Audrey Bake) on her own, worked long hours to do so and she loved “fixing people’s hair” as she called it.

Frances, a friend of Agnes, who had just gotten married and was headed to California came into the beauty shop a few days later to have her hair fixed as Agnes said. In the front window of Agnes Beauty Shop at 9888 Atwater in Portland, was Agnes’ cat collection. She had over 100 porcelain and glass cats that people had given her over the years. She numbered them and wrote down who they were all from in a small leather book.  Frances had forgotten the cat she had for Agnes’ collection and was very upset about it.  Since she was heading out of town,  she arranged to leave the cat at the home where she was staying and the man there would get it to her. 

Will Royal, the man who now had the cat from Frances, called Agnes to arrange to get her the cat.  Agnes said she wasn’t available until Saturday night.  The story goes that instead of bringing Agnes the cat, Will made up a story that he had a client who had a house with a view of the city.  His client had said it would be ok for him to take Agnes up to see it.  They went and looked at the view and then Agnes said “Let’s get out of here, they might come back.”  He didn’t tell her that it was his house until a few days later.  Will sent her notes by special delivery everyday.  They had met in April and were married in July.  The fortune teller had been right.    But, the real question is, did she ever get the cat from Frances?  Is it written in the little leather book and in the collection of cats. Which number is it or was there never a cat from Frances?

Agnes sold her shop then because Will didn’t think it would be right to have the wife of a lawyer working in a beauty shop.  She would have liked to have continued working there as she expressed in her writing.   I loved beauty work, I used to work from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. at night some times.  I had nurses from the hospitals near my shop come in at 9 p.m. for a permanent wave.  I would be on my feet all day and never seemed to be tired, it was my own business and it was really fun for me.  

Agnes’ father, John T. Gray, came to Portland in 1944.  He had lived in many different places due to his work in the Electrical Power industry and to accommodate for his wife’s health issues. When Agnes was little, they had lived  in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Big Fork, Montana; Seattle, Washington; Great Falls, Montana.  After his daughter was married he lived in Minneapolis again, Aberdeen, Washington; San Fransisco, California and then Portland, Oregon.  When he arrived to Portland, he was not well.   He stayed with his daughter Agnes for a few weeks and then with his daughter Harriet and her husband Al.  When his health did not improve, they took him to the hospital where he later passed away.  Her father was buried in the River View Cemetery next to where her son Donald Ebert had been buried on February 3, 1927.  River View is a very pretty Cemetery on SW Taylors Ferry Road in Portland, Oregon.  You can visit or search their burial records here:  http://www.riverviewcemetery.org/services/search-burial-records/  John T. Gray had worked in the Electric industry for companies like the Seattle Power, Montana Light and Power Company, and the Federal Light and Power company.  In his spare time he studied telephone devices and he holds three patents on high line phone equipment according to an article in  P.S.E.A News from October, 1924 on page 9.  You can view one of his patents from June 11, 1918 here:  https://www.google.com/patents/US1269425  He had to go to Washington D.C. to submit his idea and get the patent.   The other one from August 11, 1918 is here:  https://www.google.com/patents/US1379557   Power and telephones were a big part of the growth going on in the country at that time.