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Fridge Magnet depiction of Lexy MacKay of Embo

Fridge Magnet depiction of Lexy MacKay of Embo

Date Added: 09 January 2020 Year: 1960 Institution Name: dnhhl Cat No: ◀ | 2019_073_06 | ▶ Picture No: 14278

1960s Fridge magnet bearing monochrome photographic image c. 1930 of two elderly Embo ladies, one of whom is Lexy MacKay, the other the eponymous ''Grannie'' of Grannie's Heilan' Hame caravan park.

Dimensions: Width 50mm - Length 100mm

Groups: Hidden Gems

1 Comment

Thomas "Sandy" MacFarlane, wrote the song Grannies Heilan Hame in the late 1920s and despite claims on the web that he was an "Embo Lad" he was not, as he was born in the Glasgow area. However, he married Maggie Cumming the daughter of the "Grannie" in Boston in the USA. The Grannie was Anne Cumming (Nee Mackay). She was born in Embo in 1855 and on the 17/10/1878 she married Adam Cumming and they had many children while living on Back Street in Embo. All of her children eventually lived in the Boston area of the USA. Later in their married life the Cummings built and moved to the house now known as Grannies Heilan Hame. They called it “Boston House”.
I always knew it by that name while growing up in Embo in the 40s and 50s. Our family was close to the Cummings as Adam Cumming was my mother’s uncle and Anne Cumming was my father’s aunt. Anne Cumming died in Boston House on the 6 March 1943 aged 88. Anne was then being cared for in her old age by her daughter Kate Mackay (Katie aig Adam) and her son in law William Mackay (Bilesie). In about 1952 William died and Kate then left Embo and moved to Boston to live with her many siblings there.
My estimate is that this photo was taken in the mid-1930s when Sandy MacFarlane and his wife and two daughters made several well publicised visits to Embo while he was still famous as the author of the song. Anne would then have been in her mid-70s. Of course, when local farmer John MacIntosh bought Boston House in the mid-1950s and started his holiday caravan enterprise he used the name of the song for the house and the business.
Comment left on 19 January 2020 at 15:51 by Kenneth Mackay Thank you for your comment - the entry has been altered. Administrator
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