She was the one beautiful star that was unlike any other star. Katharine Hepburn preferred to live a simple life all her life in full independence of any other human being. She spent most of her life away from Hollywood but at a small town  called the town of Old Saybrook  in the Fenwick section of  Connecticut  

 She was born in 1907 from a pretty wealthy couple from Hartford , Connecticut. They bought the summer house in 913  when she was 5 years old. Ever since then, it was home to her. She caught the acting bug in her twenties and by the time she was in her thirties she was a well known actress.

There was the Great Hurricane of 1938 that destroyed the home. They dug the family tea set and silverware out of the sand along the shore and chose to rebuild the home this time larger and higher off the sand. By then her greatest known film was The Philadelphia Story that also had old greats like Carey Grant and Jimmy Stewart. Her next film in 1942 was Woman Of The Year opposite her long time lover Spencer Tracey which was the first of nine films they chose to make with each other. Those two really enjoyed going to work.

There were other films and other famous leading men like Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen and Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond. Known for wearing pants along her long legs she still pulled of independence, sexiness and sophistication. So who cares? I just think that she was great to do whatever she wanted no mater what society thought she should be doing at the time. She was nominated for 12 Academy Award and won 4 awards. That is still an Oscar record for an actress.  What is more remarkable is that she never showed up to accept any of those awards. She never stayed in Hollywood longer than necessary. She would say, “I’m a Connecticut girl.” She always returned to the place of her privacy.

Almost every weekend she would make the drive from New York City.  She had tings to do there like tend to her flowers, go sailing or canoeing on the lakes. Her name is even etched in the cement of the sea wall and dated 1937. Although she died in 2003 at the age of 96,  I think of her from time to time. She made a pillow and sewed the letters to read , “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” I think I understand her wisdom now. Have some fun in fife friends.