By Kathy Hughes
Contributing Writer
Long ago and back then, parents had no idea whether an expected baby would be a girl or a boy. Folk wisdom on the topic was plentiful, and it was popular to speculate based on some clue about the mother’s behavior. They were right about 50 percent of the time. So perhaps this explains why I was over a week old before my parents entered a name on a birth certificate.
The story goes that my name was finally discovered in a newspaper article. It was my mother who discovered it while reading about a jewel thief by the name of “Kathleen Nash.” Dad evidently was sitting nearby, probably also reading a section of the paper, when my mother looked up and said, “What about Kathleen?”
Kathleen — without argument, that was to be it. I imagine this scene taking place on a weekend morning at home, with the August sun streaming through the window. My parents would be sitting quietly together, sharing the newspaper. Yet, in all likelihood this scene took place while Mom and I were still in the hospital, and, if Dad was there, he was visiting. Those days the newspaper could have been a morning paper — the Washington Post, or, equally likely, The Evening Star.
Assuming Dad was present, that means he wasn’t at work, which points to it being either an evening event, or over the weekend. Although I have no evidence to the contrary, it’s hard to imagine the parents I knew agreeing on anything, especially without argument.
It wasn’t like Mom to leave out any details of an event of such importance, especially details like what other names were being considered. Dad’s mother’s name was “Elizabeth,” Mom’s was “Nellie.” Mom didn’t even like her own name, and she was extremely self-conscious about anything that would seem countrified, which would rule out any name from her side of the family. But, as I’ve already pointed out, I don’t know any other names that were considered, if any at all.
Now, about Kathleen Nash. I wasn’t named after her; it was only her first name that triggered a suggestion in my mother’s mind. I say this because Kathleen Nash was a central figure in one of the largest jewel heists, the Hesse jewels, with two accomplices. All three were serving in Germany as U.S. Army officers when they discovered the stash of jewels owned by the royal Hesse family; the jewels had been hidden in Kronberg castle, which was occupied by the Army and managed by Captain Kathleen Nash. It’s a fascinating story, largely forgotten today, but, in 1946 it was a sensation.
