©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Connection to Wm. Penn ship; she celebrates 100th birthday
by LEN LEAR

Mary N.L. Woodmansee, who is 100 years old this week (June 21), is seen at Pennsbury Manor, where she was recently honored, with Bill Potts, 67, a distant cousin.

Every thread in the fabric of Mary N.L. Woodmansee’s makeup is regal, historic and filled with pride for her family heritage. Mary, who grew up in Horsham (her family owned the Horsham Hotel) but has lived most of her life in the Fort Washington area, will celebrate her 100th birthday Wednesday, June 21 — the day this issue of the Local is distributed to local stores and honor boxes.

(We were originally planning to interview Mary for this article, but she suffered a stroke on Memorial Day and is currently recuperating at Springhouse Estates, a retirement living facility in eastern Montgomery County. Thus, we felt it might be too stressful to attempt to interview Mary at this time.)

Mary (maiden name, Nash) had no siblings except for a half-brother, Frederick Nash, who is buried in the graveyard at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Fort Washington. She was married twice, but her second husband died in the 1960s, and she never had any children. Her first husband’s last name was Layman.

At one time Mary owned a gift shop in Lansdale, but at other times she was personal secretary to famed Bucks County novelist James Michener, an assistant to the dean at Ursinus College in Collegeville and an employee at Doylestown National Bank and a coal company, respectively.

But Mary’s major source of pride was in being a member of the Welcome Society. In order to be a member of that national organization with more than 400 members, one must be a direct descendant of one of the passengers on The Welcome, the ship that brought William Penn to this area in 1682, where he founded Philadelphia the following year. She is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and The Society of Colonial Dames, two other patriotic organizations whose members can trace their family trees at least as far back as the American Revolution.

“She always liked to do genealogy,” said Bill Potts, 67, a distant cousin to Mary who met her three decades ago at his uncle’s funeral. “She knew my father, and we hit it off right from the start. Mary is a very lovely, independent lady.”

(Potts, who has lived his entire life in the Fort Washington area, is also a member of the Welcome Society. He retired one year ago after 28 years with the investment firm of Janney Montgomery Scott. He worked for other investment firms in the region before that.)

Mary continued to live alone at an apartment in Fort Washington up until her stroke last month. She was driving a car until she was 96. In recent years, as her declining health has made her less independent, Potts has helped her with shopping and household chores. They often went out to dinner in the area, and even her favorite restaurants had a historic flavor to them — the William Penn Inn in Gwynedd and the King George Inn in Bristol, lower Bucks County, both of which are well over 200 years old.

On April 29 Mary was honored by friends and admirers at Pennsbury Manor, overlooking the Delaware River in lower Bucks County, which was the home of William Penn. This Saturday, June 24, Potts and other friends will have a 100th birthday party for Mary at his home.

“She is a very special person,” said Potts. “She loved to go to Maine. We would always drive up there in June and September and stay for one or two weeks, and we were going to go up this month. She just said to me last month, ‘I have to start packing.’ Mentally, she is still fine.”

“She really deserves recognition in the paper,” added Mary Beth Klein, who works near Mary’s apartment and brought her to the attention of the Local. “She is a delightful person and really impressed me with her independence at her age.”