Cultural Elegance
One man, however, who
had visited Marguiretta's with
his father at the tender age of
five said that she had been
quite pleasant toward him,
calling him "little boy" in her
low, musical voice.
Though she rarely left her
house, Marguerrita was
fond of music, and attended
concerts at the University.
Yet she claimed that she
never saw the Grounds by
daylight.
All in all, she led a very
quiet, discreet public life,
unusual perhaps for someone
of her profession.
In fact, she was considered
an unusual woman by the
community. Charlottesville in
one sense was different in
the 1930's and '40's, because
everybody knew everybody
else, the town was so small.
As one Charlottesville lady
put it, "Even the rabble was
considered exceptional merely
because they were
Charlottesville's.
"She was sort of an
accepted part of the scene
here." Large groups of
townspeople strongly
disapproved of her; her name
was not mentioned in polite
society, but Marguiretta
possessed a certain amount of
"cultural elegance," which has,
in the past few weeks, caught
the fancy of fortune hunters,
historians, and the curious all
over the world.
