By: Judy

Judy — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:51:05 +0000

A national treasure honored in the National Portrait Gallery seems like an excellent fit to me. She was indeed fascinating and continues to be. In 1977 I met her backstage in her dressing room in Baltimore after a performance of A Matter of Gravity. I had written asking if I could come back and to my utter amazement she wrote back and agreed. I had loved and admired her since I was barely into my teens and now here I was, at 22, standing with her in Baltimore. I was petrified. Indicating her letter, a copy of which I had brought with me to insure my admittance backstage, I began to mumble something like “Miss Hepburn, I was so surprised…” to get your letter, I meant to say. But before I could get out that last part, she laughed and asked: “At my good manners?” That broke the ice. Well, let’s just say that it thawed it a bit. I was still shivering as we talked about the play and things that are very difficult to recall now, looking back 30 years later. But I remember how she sounded, which was – well, just exactly like Katharine Hepburn sounded! And how she looked, which was exactly as I’d imagined she would, with her slightly disheveled upswept hair, dressed in her brown, sleeveless coat lining, blue, blue eyes fixed intently on me (as though I were the most fascinating thing to come her way that day; she was good at that). And I remember how kind she was to the quaking kid standing before her. And I’ve never forgotten.

Comments on: First-Person Curator

By: Judy