Charles
W. Goodyear House .......................................
Cheryl McDonald -
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Fanny Goodyear: The Buffalo Princess By Cheryl McDonald Reprint from the May 22, 2020 "Explore Buffalo Newsletter" Two years later in Buffalo, NY, on May 23, 1910, the parents of the future Princess Tasso were married. As a wedding present, the groom’s parents gave them a home, which was right next door to their home on Delaware Avenue. In 1914 the future princess was born to Bradley and Jeanette Goodyear. Bradley’s parents were Charles and Ella Goodyear. Charles was a successful attorney and one time District Attorney, but gave up the law practice to join his brother, Frank Goodyear, in the lumber business. The Goodyear families were influential, successful, and prominent Buffalo families, but it was little Fanny who brought royalty to Buffalo. Frances Goodyear, or Fanny as she was known, grew up attending private schools in the northeast, such as Miss Hall’s school in Pittsfield MA and the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury CT. As was common for girls from Buffalo’s elite families, she made her debut on December 26, 1933. The headline on the social page of the Courier Express read “Mme. Goodyear presents her granddaughter at a Brilliant Dance in her Delaware Avenue home.” The lengthy article went on to explain “The wide veranda onto which the room opens was enclosed for the occasion, with the walls hung with Oriental rugs.” Today this veranda, or portico, is enclosed with brick and windows. Fanny went on to attend Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and spent her 1936 junior year living with a French family while studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Spring break that year, of course, was spent on the Riveria! Buffalo Courier Express, Monday, May 29, 1939 During this time, Fanny experienced all that Europe had to offer by traveling extensively with school friends and her parents, who visited often. In 1938 Fanny and her mother left New York City on the Empress of Britain for a world cruise. Perhaps it was on one of those many excursions that Fanny and Prince Louis Torre Tasso met, because on June 10, 1939 they were married in Buffalo’s St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Although only the families attended the wedding, many parties were given the week before the wedding, from East Aurora to Williamsville to Buffalo. After the wedding, the couple left for Europe to spend the summer traveling on “the Continent” and finally settled on a farm outside Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Their son, Alexander Frederick Bradley Tasso was born on February 26, 1940. On January 19, 1945, after five years in Hitler-dominated Europe, the family left Europe for the United States. Their first stop was Switzerland where they boarded a French train in Geneva and were placed under the supervision of American Military Police. Along with 622 fellow American citizens being repatriated, they then boarded the exchange ship, Gripsholm. After eight days sitting on the ship, it finally sailed for America. Princess Tasso often spoke about her experience to community groups, always praising the American Red Cross for their assistance. Illustrating that Buffalonians are everywhere, she was amazed to discover that one of the American M.P.’s was from Buffalo and that he had served under Maj. George Urban, another Buffalonian and friend of the Goodyear family. Sadly, this fairy tale came to an end when a divorce was granted to Princess Delia Torre e Tasso and Prince Luigi Delia Torre e Tasso in Nevada in 1948. Fanny and Prince Tasso’s son, who was called Sasha, grew up in Buffalo and Cooperstown, where his maternal grandparents lived. He spent summers with his father in Europe and attended the Nichols School in Buffalo, the Hill School in Pottstown, PA, Princeton University, and Syracuse University. He died August 29, 2011 at the age of 71 in Awendaw, Charleston, South Carolina. The year after her divorce Fanny married Daniel Streeter who had spent his teen years at 869 Delaware, right across the street from Fanny’s grandparents! Fanny had grown up next door to Charles and Ella Goodyear at the corner of Bryant and Delaware. So, after a whirlwind romance and an exciting life abroad, Fanny found love right in her own front yard. When they married, Fanny was 35 and Daniel was 39. They were married for 26 years until Fanny died at the age of 61 in 1975 in Clearwater, Florida. Daniel remarried and died in 1994 in Clearwater, Florida at the age of 85. About the Author: Cheryl McDonald As a Founding Member, Master Docent, and a Lead Docent on the Delaware Avenue Mansions Tour, Cheryl is well-versed in the history of Buffalo's prominent families. In addition to giving the Delaware Avenue walking tour, Cheryl teaches docents-in-training about the former residents of Millionaire's Row and the complex connections between those well-known families. Cheryl has also researched and presented about working women at the Turn of the Century, WNY women at work during WWII, and leading ladies of 19th and 20th c. Buffalo. |