Monday, February 1, 2016

In Memoriam: Meg Mundy

An extraordinary person who dwelt among us here in Hudson for twenty or so years died last month at the age of 101. At the end of the last millennium and the beginning of the new, Meg Mundy lived on Willard Place, in the house that is now Croff House. When I was buying my house in 1993, Meg's name was regularly invoked as evidence that Hudson was a desirable place to live. My first knowledge of Meg was as the lovely and gracious woman who was willing to open her home for a house tour I co-chaired for the Hudson Opera House in 1996 and her garden for the garden tour Historic Hudson and the Hudson Opera House collaborated to present in 1997.


I never quite knew the full extent of Meg's remarkable career. She'd been a model (the image above is the Vogue cover, by Irving Penn, for November 15, 1944), an editor for such magazines as Vogue (under Diana Vreeland), House & Garden, and Mademoiselle, and an actress. During the McCarthy Era, her name appeared on the "Red List" of people involved in radio and TV on the East Coast suspected of having Communist leanings. This obituary, from The Classic TV History Blog, recounts Meg's long and distinguished acting career. To quote a former Hudsonian who was her neighbor here and her friend long after they'd both left Willard Place, "We will never know anyone quite like her, but, of course, they don't make them like that anymore."
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4 comments:

  1. Meg was a remarkable woman, imposing, and witty, regal and affable. She made wonderful dinners and was even better company, delightful to be with and full of stories about her amazing life. It was always summertime to be with her.

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  2. Kind, gracious, smart, talented, beautiful -- it was a blessing to have known Meg.

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  3. Funnily, I thought of Meg this weekend when an acquaintance from Canada unexpectedly dropped into the store and mentioned she was staying at the Croff House. The image of Meg came immediately to mind, elegant, gracious and beautiful, I remembered her wit and charm and the lovely renovation she did to her house on Willard Place, the interesting dinners she gave there and also I remembered the kick I got out of seeing her in 'Fatal Attraction', where she played the Connecticut mother-in-law of Michael Douglas. Hudson was a cool place back then and Meg was the star, rivaled only by Edith Bel Geddes. RIP Meg

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  4. I remember meeting her she seem a sweet person told me she was a actress on the doctors

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