POLLY NUGENT
Polly Nugent, the "unofficial mayor of Larchmont" for thirty
years, died in her sleep on September 5 at her home in Juno
Beach, Florida. She was 92.
Katharine OıDonnell Nugent invariably known as Polly was a prominent
Larchmont resident from the late 1940s through the late 1970s. Though she
held no public office, Mrs. Nugent was widely known among her fellow
villagers for an indefatigable sociability. She had a reputation for
knowing, and knowing about, an astonishing number of Larchmonters, as well
as their children, spouses, and ancestors.
Polly Nugent was a devoted parishioner at St. Augustineıs and an active
member of the Larchmont Yacht Club. She was a co-founder of the first
women's sailing class at the yacht club. Mrs. Nugent was also an undercover
stock-picker: in the 1960s, she and a group of friends formed a
semi-clandestine investment club called The Penny Wives. The Wives
consistently outperformed the S&P 500 and the brokerage houses that employed
a significant fraction of Larchmont's male commuter population.
Polly Nugent was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1913, the second of
four children of John Colgan O'Donnell and Katharine Coyle O'Donnell. She
graduated from St. Annıs Academy in that city and then attended
Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. She left Manhattanville for a
stint as a fashion model and actress in midtown Manhattan, where she met and
marrried Joseph P. Nugent in 1937. Mr. Nugent, the son of a former
Commissioner of Sanitation of the City of New York, was a graduate of Notre
Dame (where he played football under Knute Rockne), a civil engineer, an
amateur boatbuilder, and a longtime member of the yacht club's Race
Committee. The Nugents moved to Larchmont in 1948 and remained in their
house on Locust Avenue unttil 1977.
Mrs. Nugent is survived by her daughter, Kate West, of Wilmington, North
Carolina; by her sons Patrick Nugent, of Greeensboro, North Carolina, Conn
Nugent, of New York City, and Rory Nugent, of Eastport, Maine; and by nine
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A fourth son, John Nugent, died
in 1956. Pollyıs husband Joe died in 1985.
A memorial mass will be offered at St. Augustine's on Saturday, October 1,
at 11:00 a.m. The celebrant will be Mrs. Nugent's nephew, the Rev. Richard
Abert, S.J.
Print This Page--For best results, use landscape
option in Preferences
Email
this article
|
