“Mrs. H.W. Brady was hostess Monday to sixteen members of the Junior League garden group at her home, 2025 Gratiot avenue. Plans for the spring season were discussed and election of officers conducted. …Tea was served following the meeting.”
.The Saginaw News, March 23, 1937.
Born April 22, 1898, Katharine O’Keefe was the daughter of John and Ida Callam. Her mother was a part of a prominent lumber family and her father was a well-known attorney. Growing up in Saginaw, Katharine graduated from Saginaw High School in 1916 and attended the Ossining School for girls at Ossining, New York.
On October 12, 1920, Katharine married Herr Williams Brady who worked in insurance in Saginaw. To fill her time, Mrs. H.W. Brady was the consummate hostess to a variety of groups in Saginaw, often throwing lunches and parties at her home on Gratiot Avenue, where it’s likely today’s recipe may well have been served.
Mrs. Brady was a member of First Presbyterian Church, a charter member of the Saginaw Chapter of the Junior League, a member of the Saginaw Garden Club, and was also active in the Community Concert Association. Her daughter Constance “Connie” Brady Harvey carried on her mother’s tradition of community involvement.
The Castle Museum collection includes several items related to her, including architectural drawings of the home of her parents, Ida Callam and John O’Keefe, at 520 Millard.
After Katharine fell ill and later died at Saginaw General Hospital on Christmas Day, December 25, 1957, money was raised in her honor. These funds were later used by friends to pay for a bronze casting of “Flying Wild Geese” by Marshal M. Fredericks to be erected in the Saginaw Art Museum gardens.
By 1958, the time when “Flying Wild Geese” was installed in the gardens, Marshall M. Fredericks was already an internationally known sculptor and the sculpture itself was a somewhat common choice in memorial to someone. According to the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum:
Atop a wooded hill overlooking a small pond in Detroit’s Elmwood Cemetery stands a memorial to the late attorney turned industrialist Alvan Macauley. Commissioned by his wife and son soon after his death in 1952, the sculpture reflects Macauley’s love of nature and wildlife. On a simple granite pedestal sit two bronze geese as they take off into flight. Beneath their bodies, the tips of swamp rushes bend under the weight of the birds’ wings.
Though the original “Flying Wild Geese” was commissioned by the Maccauley family, “waterfowl are a symbol of eternal life and this sculpture symbolizes the ascendency of the soul no longer imprisoned by the body,” making it a fitting tribute to any departed soul. It remains one of Fredericks’ most popular and widely cast sculptures.
The Recipe: Iced Chocolate
Mrs H.W. Brady’s Iced Chocolate
1 qt milk
1 Tbsp grated chocolate
A little cream
½ tsp vanilla
Pinch of cinnamon
Sweetened whipped cream
Heat milk. While it is heating, mix chocolate with cream to make a smooth paste. When milk comes to a boil, add chocolate and simmer 4 minutes. Cool and add vanilla and cinnamon. Beat with an egg beater for 5 minutes. Chill. Put a teaspoon of crushed iced in the bottom of a tall glass. Fill with chocolate and top with whipped cream
