Remembering Capt. Mary Becker Greene

*Remembering Capt. Mary Becker Greene*
Steamboating colleagues,
Phillip, many thanks for drawing our attention in your above posting RE: Capt. Mary Becker Greene on this the 66th anniversary of her death. The photos are great! Indeed she was the "matriarch of the Greene family and GREENE LINE STEAMERS." Again one I term a 'grand original.' I never met Capt. Mary nor her son Capt. Tom Greene but heard many anecdotes of her from my family whom had known her back to the year 1900. Capt. Mary loved flowers and growing plants with my grandmother way back giving her a large potted plant reputed to have been a 'century plant.' Mary B. Greene hailed from a family of dentists up in Ohio and later here in Cincinnati. The then renamed GREENE LINE moved to Cincinnati in 1904. She was also for a time honorary president, Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen.

The pseudonym of "Ma Greene" was taken by her and the Greene family with grace while biting their tongues. It was a young newspaper reporter at the time who was reputed to have attached the name "Ma" to her in an article. The Greene family--and Capt. Mary in particular--were true originals in their own right without any so-called PR needed. The Greenes were one of the best known families in Cincinnati with their hospitality legendary generating their own PR.

Those who knew Mary B. Greene never used the term "Ma." She was always called Mrs. Gordon C. Greene, Capt. Mary B. Greene, Mrs. Greene or 'Mame' by those who knew her the closest. And her circle of ladies as passengers on the Greene boats were always busy helping in cutting, hemmming, sewing pretty little aprons on deck or in the cabin on trips which she offered aboard the boats for sale or presented to benefit her church, Knox Presbyterian Church here in Hyde Park, Cincinnati. The late Mary Greene-Stewart, Capt. Mary's grandaughter, daughter of Capt. Tom and Letha C. Greene, giggled to me about the name "Ma." "We always felt like it pictured my grandmother as a kind of "Tugboat Annie"--which was far from the truth."

When Capt. Tom Greene steamed his then new prize the DELTA QUEEN into Cincinnati spruced up, spic and span from her time at DRAVO, all the family, friends, invited officials, crew members politely, quietly stepped back so she could be the first to step over and aboard the DQ. Capt. Mary was shrewd, well-educated with a mind like a steel trap. There is an old record done of an interview with her years ago. I have a detailed interview done of her and her life written down in the cabin of the GORDON C. GREENE in 1948. Thanks for the photos and memory. You made my day. Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Capt. Mary B. Greene at the wheel of her beloved husband's namesake, the Str. GORDON C. GREENE.

Capt. Mary and son, Tom, on the GORDON C. GREENE
Photo from the Murphy Library collection

*Capts. Mary & Tom on the GORDON C. GREENE*
Morning, Jim!
Again, thanks for the above added photos taken on the GCG. The 2nd--one above--really caught my fancy. Here's Capt. Mary and son Capt. Tom Greene on the GCG no doubt on a summer 'trip.' Remember, back then it was always a 'trip' on a steamboat and never the term 'cruise.' Tom's spiffy jacket, hat, trousers sumpthin' else and he believe in presenting a good image. Steamboat 'forensics' tell me the photo above possibly snapped in late afteroon or leading into dinner later.

My eyes slid over the hills in the distance, deck on the GCG. I noted those metal deck chairs instantly. Those chairs weren't all true 'rockers' but had the steel tube support system that let you sort of gently rock a bit. Those chairs lived a long, long life being moved over in time to the DELTA QUEEN. Who here remembers those chairs back in the earlier days? They served duty on the DQ being sanded, painted a number of times--usually always in either a gray or mostly that subtle GREENE LINE green paint. Then came the wood rockers on the DQ decks. Anybody know what happened to those older steel chair we see above? How many here also recall the folding canvas recliner deck chairs you rented for a small fee on sailing day that were put outside your cabin door or wherever you wanted them? Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Delta Queen Rocking Chairs

HI DALE SOMEONE SHOULD tell Cornell or who is in charge to BRING BACK THOSE GOOD WOODEN ROCKING CHAIRS.Never had the opportunity to set on one at the DQ but have used one at a famous restaurant with the letters CB an those were great. Instead of pins jackets hats they could put name on rocking chairs for donations. I think they might be doing so for some of the BIG SPENDERS Or for donation someone could buy an donate rocking chair as CB sells them out front an bet knows where to buy in larger quantity of more than 1.
Carole Pompano Beach Fla They have them at CB in white navy an dark green an sort of a wood brown.Look well built and sturdy Woouldnt they look beautiful on the newly refurbished DQ? WOW....

The cabins at my family's resort had (still have) metal chairs made similarly. A few of them are true rockers, but most are not--however, the design is such that you can "rock" a bit in any of them--unless you're one of those 90lbs "wisp "o wind" folks. 🙂
Neat photos. Now as an aside, here is my childhood Ma Green, spelled differently, she ran the cafe at the resort, 6 stools, two booths. Folks lined up on two long benches outside waiting to get in. She was written up in the New Yorker, and took a round-the-world cruise & friends to the Caribbean twice for that little place (and this was back when such trips were much more expensive (relatively) and rarer than they are now). I have her Model A Ford that she bought new--used to slide down the front fenders when I was about 4 years old! Not me in the picture of the A, that's on the "set" of "Baby Blue Marine" back in the 1970s. The car is now been restored longer than it was unrestored (I started on it in 8th grade, 1967)
Just thought the name co-incidence is interesting.

The wooden rocking chairs on the Delta Queen are still there. Some have been painted black, and some are still white. They will all be repaired or replaced as necessary and painted white. At the new Delta Queen Steamboat Company we very much appreciate the time honored traditions of "steamboatin" and one of those is to be able to sit out on deck in a genuine rocking chair watching the river go by. Have no fear folks....they'll be on deck waiting for you!

David,

Nifty photos of MA's Koffee Kup. The middle photo the 3/4 of the building, in the fat left lower quadrant a small slant roof "addition". By chance was that the WC?.......possibly with out the H2O in the W?

In the photo of the Model A, background is a partially seen wood sheathed (so it appears) boxcar turned into a crew "camp car". Would you be so kind as to illuminate the scene. RR Museum, tourist line, etc.? Thanks.

As to the metal tube frame chairs on the GCG & DQ. The GCG chairs seem to have wide, possibly 3 to 4 inch "slats". Would those be steel or fabric? If steel, keep the chairs out of the Sun!

The tube frame steel chairs on the DQ, on the forward Texas Deck-----up until possibly 81---had a solid seat with a die cut pattern. Since there were no back legs as such one could generate a bit of fore and aft motion.

*'Koffee Kup'/Model A Ford*
Steamboating colleagues,
David, your above photos and posted story great! Never fear here if something now and then isn't "pure steamboats." This and these postings to me like a letter from home. The steel chairs previously were, as you remembered, steel and not true rockers. The steel tube rounded legs let you sort of 'rock' or 'bounce' a bit. I saw rather 'hefty' ladies and men gently bobbing wondering if the steel tube struts would break. I think at one time or another off Main Street in every American village or town there were front porch rockers with family sitting, talking, sharing, watching life go by in chairs like those--or similar. We certainly were front porch sitters in my time on intricate cane/rattan settees, chairs painted white with cushions and a rattan flower box painted white with geraniiums and ferns. The big screened in back veranda porch behind the kitchen used on other days.

The Model A Ford is a beauty along with the bumpers you slid down. And don't forget the wide running boards also. My family had old Hudsons and Fords with running boards I used to stand on with my grandfather holding me, driving with one hand for what I thought was a long ride from the garages down to the street over the cinder drive covered with what was scraped out of the big, old WILLIAMSON coal furnace in the basement. Even 'Bo' my grandfather's dog knew how to ride the running boards. Again, with me, that was a LONG time ago.

You tripped your hand on your age with "I started on it in the 8th grade, 1967." By that time I was graduated, out of University of Cincinnati here slugging with a Marine Corps pack, rifle and medical kit on my back. Yep, them was the days!

Another memory I have here was when Mrs. Letha C. Greene would have her car driven from the GL wharfboat over a special wide ramp [not the bow stage] on the bow of the DELTA QUEEN when the boat 'tripped' out of Cincinnati. Mrs. Greene would ride the boat down the river remaining on for dinner and a formal welcome to the passengers. The name 'Orleans Room' wasn't even thought of then. Some trips she'd get off along the way, drive her car back to Cincinnati at night. Other times all the way to Louisville and back. Many a time Mrs. Greene met the boat in Louisville or Madison for the last day or so of the trip to greet the passengers for the last night party. The Greenes had that warm, personal touch that drew fans by the droves. More than once she tossed me her stateroom key saying, "Here's my key. I'm not staying on and the room is yours." I'd catch the boat in Madison for the night run up to Cincinnati usually getting off just after midnight and then back to the house here. Other times I'd board in Evansville or Louisville with a room aboard to Cincinnati for several days. If there was fog or bad weather the boat would land in the wee morning hours. Those are memories we never forget. That was even LONGER ago. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Jim,
I had forgotten all about that little shed. No, it wasn't the WC, they were in a separate building about 25 feet to the left out of the frame. They were also restrooms for the vacation trailer spaces. I was thinking maybe the water heater, but the sink was on the other side of the building. I do remember putting my wood skis on the shed roof one fall to warm them up--we were putting on the patented "T-Tape" ski base and the adhesive (on the tape) needed to be warmed up (we waited to long in the fall & the days weren't warm enough). This was back in the days when you'd get out your old equipment and prepare for "ski season", oil the ski boots, sharpen the ski's edges & re-do the base to make them slippery(er).
The Model A background is in McCloud, CA. The old outside braced boxcar turned into a caboose was being used as the ticket office for the train, as the original beautiful log-cabin sided two story station had burned down the year before. Log-cabin siding was a product of the McCloud River Lumber Company, very popular in the 1930s. The caboose, and the tracks were still there a few years ago, but may be gone now. Most of the Railroad is gone (another loss of childhood places), but the steam engines live one, one in Virgina City, NV, one up in Oregon, in use.
Here's a picture of the model A in the summer of 1971 when I first had it running--the building in the right background is right where the car sat for a decade. Then one showing the porch chairs (with my nephew repairing the screen door)--in earlier times they'd share the porch with an icebox, but now the electric refrigerators are on the back porches, and then the A back when I'd slide down the fenders--after Mr. Green died in 1954, the car just sat right there. unfortunately Ma Green never saw the finished car.

David, Thanks for the additional photos and update on the Railroad in the background.

Jim, Here's some pictures on that Railroad, back in 2004. No tracks exist now where these pictures were taken, and the water tank was pulled down a few years ago (When this picture was taken, a friend and I had just gotten it back in service--it's 3/4 filled in the photo). 🙁
Not me in the photo, & I forgot his name, I was just on the footplate as a guest.

Dale, we never had money enough to rent the canvas, recliner deck chairs so we were stuck using those steel deck chairs, most of which came off the GCG after it was laid up.
Rocking chairs were nonexistent on the boat back then. I wonder if the heavily painted canvas decks could hold up under constant rocking?
As you say, "what do I know."

DQ rocking chairs

The current embodiment of the rocking chairs on the DQ started near my final bigtime years, probably around 1982. I personally didn't care for them, not only from the comfort level, but they were easy to trip over in smaller areas. Of course, I had my own chaise lounger that I brought on board and kept stored by the smokestack in the Officers Quarters, so that was my perch for about 14 hours a day.

*DQ Rocking Chairs/Bring your own*
Steamboating colleagues,
Judy, Jim, thanks for your memories above further expanding this discussion thread. How these fascinating discussion threads begin, exand, grow the pleasure of Steamboats.org. Good to see a number returning to Steamboats.org or bouncing back and forth with FACEBOOK, public to semi-private, private webs and links.

JIm, I never thought about the factor of the rockers on the canvas/wood deck, which may explain the use of the famed metal/steel 'semi-rockers' or 'bouncers.' There were times I went a long period without seeing, stepping aboard the DQ. When I did see the then new white, wood rocking chairs I naturally took them for what they were. Judy makes a good point about "tripping over them." The chairs themselves served as something of a cute little PR and advertising 'hook' in the media touting "rocking on the river watching the world go by." LIke Judy I spent as many hours on a "perch" directly in front of the pilothouse.

I remember years, years ago passengers boarding the DQ here at the old GL wharfboat hauling their own deck chairs from home. I recall them driving down to the boat. The chairs were those infamous aluminum type with the multi-colored nylon webbing. They also brought a couple of other smaller aluminum webbed chairs. No sooner were they unpacked than they put their chairs on deck by their cabin door as a family to stretch out with their beverages.

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

The deck chairs in the photo of M B Greene & Tom Greene on the CGC that instigated the deck chair discussion show what appears to be wide straps forming the seat and back. The same type of deck chairs on the forward Texas Deck in May 1968 when I went to work on the DQ were of the generally same type construction except the seats and back were die cut patterns in a solid piece of metal. Not saying that these chairs were not from the CGC; however could the chairs in the photo have been replaced by the ones w/solid seats/backs after the photo was taken then transferred to the DQ?

No, Jim, there were two types of metal chairs, the ones with the metal straps were from the GCG, the solid ones were DQ bought for the DQ when she started running over here. By the mid-50's the GCG chairs were showing their age.

*Deck chairs/Meal seatings*
Steamboating colleagues,
Morning, Jim Blum and Jim Reising. I think Jim R. is correct on the metal deck chairs from the GCG moving over to the DQ, then other chairs being added. I recall, when the old chairs bit the dust, a number of crew and office staff were given the old metal chairs. Many were taken home to be sanded down, primed and painted new and fresh. Virginia Bennett had one or two on the front porch of her home for years. Basically the chairs were a 'generic' purchase from a supply company with the same line and style being seen all over. The next 'era' for deck chairs and tables came when the company purchased the rather heavy white wrought iron tables and chairs for the front deck above. You can't say they weren't solid and heavy. Problem with some deck chairs and tables on boats and ships is being subject to wind during storms on the river blowing around. The fine curved wood benches on the outside bulkheads on two decks with slats were built on the boats in California. If you got down, looked under the end of the one bench outside on the Purser Office side you could see where a section of the wood was deliberately NOT painted steamboat white so you could see the W.W. II Navy Gray. How many here remember that?

Years earlier on sailing day arriving passengers checked in with the DQ Purser Office to collect your room key--not the present slip card for doors with the little red and green light also serving as an on-board credit card. Just opposite between the purser Office and the Souvenir/Notions shop was that veteran round wood table dating back to the days on the Sacramento River. Behind it that semi-round or oval wood shelf usually with a big pot of growing flowers or red roses or other cut flowers. Usually a DQ waiter or whomover there to sign you up for preference with 1st or 2nd meal seating. I remember a number of times Mary Greene, Capt. Tom and Letha's daughter, manning the deck chair table in front of the Souvenir shop. Mary was serving as VP of the company then under her mother. Mary had a number of great ideas of her own for the boat in those pre Betty Blake days. One was the updating of the bar off the dining room on the starboard side. Another was updating the main dining room more on the lines of what became the 'Orleans Room' in later years. Power-house Betty Blake didn't conjure up all and everything for the boat in those days as imagined. For a number of years the deck chairs were those folding sling canvas type in dark blue and painted white wood. They were marked with your name on a tag and placed by a deckman outside your cabin or wherever you wanted it. As the 'trip' progressed many chairs were moved here or there depending on new-found acquaintances and old friends. Many sun bathed on the open bow deck or back by where the calliope was installed. Many a blistering hot summer night passengers abandoned their cabins to bring a pillow, sheet and sleep outside in their canvas chairs talking until the wee hours of the morning. How many here remember the days on the DQ when there was no calliope at all? Again, that was also a LONG time ago.

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

Those wrought iron tables and chairs were actually pretty heavy. However, on the trip President Carter was on, we encountered one of the famous Upper Mississippi Midwest storms, straight line winds of about 85 MPH. Those tables most certainly did get blown around and overturned. The chairs that matched them were not the most comfortable chair for sitting and relaxing, and had no arms.

The metal chairs that Jim Blum referred to had been relegated to the Cabin Deck bow by the mid-1970's, where they received little use. I did spend some time sanding, priming and painting those chairs. I would imagine that those metal chairs were HOT on the Texas Deck, sitting in the sun, which I'm guessing is why they were moved to the shaded Cabin Deck.

Some aluminum-framed chairs with thick vinyl straps were then used on the Texas Deck bow. These were lightweight and comfortable, but the straps had to be replaced on a semi-regular basis. Those chairs were so light weight they did get blown around in a moderate wind. They were replaced (with what, I cannot remember) in about 79 or 80, and I had one at our home for many years on my back deck until the straps all gave out. I just never maintained it.

Delta Queen Chairs

I was hoping they would replace the old chairs but have been told at least with the rockers they will be refurbished an re painted white unless they are in such dis repair as to be non useable only then to be tossed out. I looked up a supplier for them who offered free delivery color choice quantity discount etc.It wwould have looked nice on the pretty new all redone boat to see all new chairs. OH WELL Don't know about the wrought iron ones maybe they are redoing them also.Just trying to help out. excuse spelling.Just a suggestion stay away from the high maintance strap ones.Carole

The white "wrought iron" look tables, as I recall were brought on board in Memphis, the year escapes me however. I believe they were cast aluminum, which surprised me at the time. There may well have been additional tables/chairs that were actual cast iron brought on later.

The metal chairs in the CGC photo with the wide slats appear to have been used with cushions--I theorize that by one chair forward where the woman is standing looking aft. That chair appears to have something on the other sides of the slats. Possibly the woman brought a towel from the room. Just a wild guess about cushions, however is cushions were to be used with those chairs where were they stored?

GCG Deck Chairs?

According to Larry Norris, nephew of the late Dorothy Frye, these canvas and wood deckchairs came off the GCG. They also look much like the chairs that were on the DELTA QUEEN when I started working there in 1965.