“We came as often as we could in the summer so mother could breathe easier,” Keeley says. “She had bad asthma and the salt air helped.” “It was all so different back then,” McIlvoy says. “Where we stayed, there were no sinks. We had a wash basin and slept on little pallets mother would lay out for us.” n Memories trail from hours spent on the beach with their sister, Jackie Shelton, collecting seashells, wading out so deep the four-some would hold onto a rope to create a chain so they could col-lect more shells on the sand bar. Shelton died in 2003 at age 80. Their voices drop a notch when they talk about sneaking Shelton, a teenager at the time, in from late nights at Lumina Pavilion where she sang and performed in talent contests. “Oh, could she sing,” McIlvoy says, then bursts into a rendi-tion of “Stormy Weather.” “‘Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky…’ — that was her favorite,” McIlvoy says. “She was so good.” Lumina was a haven for young people of the day. Although the girls spent time on many southeastern beaches including Myrtle Beach and Kure Beach, their hearts and the action were here. “Mother would roll over in her grave if she knew all the things we did,” McIlvoy says, then smiles and fidgets a little. “Well, I just mean staying out past our curfew.” Lindsay chimes in to change the subject, her eyes glossy with memory. “Mother loved to fish,” she says. “I remember she used to go to Kure Beach on fishing trips with her girlfriends. She mostly surf-fished, but she’d fish from the piers and such, too. She could stay out there forever.” As the girls grew up and prepared to have families of their own, the Wrightsville Beach tradition continued. McIlvoy was the first to marry, and when her husband, Dr. Daniel McIlvoy, returned from war, he continued on his path as pediatrician-in- training and signed on as a resident at Babies Hospital on Wrightsville Sound in 1946. “We just couldn’t get away from this place,” McIlvoy says. “That’s when the fishing really began,” she says. They moved into an apartment for one year below a long-time Wrightsville Beach resident, Paul Hines, on North Channel Drive. Within months, they became fixtures on his fishing and shrimping trips. “Mother used to love to come visit us,” McIlvoy says. “All those fish. She was in heaven.” Above: The Braddock sisters, from left: Frances “Jackie” Shelton, Nina Keeley, Myrtle “Mutt” Lindsay and Polly McIlvoy, circa 1933-36. Right: Mutt, Polly, Jackie and Nina circa late 1960s. PHOTOS COURTESY OF JAMIE PENN 50 WBM september 2014
2014-9
To see the actual publication please follow the link above