29 Jul Lee Bean
Slaughter Guest House in Washington, DC, 1942
For as along as our family can remember, Hedy would talk about the time she lived in Washington DC, when she worked for the IRS and then the OSS, and had an apartment at the “Slaughter Guest House.” She was friends with “Lee Bean,” and we remember her referring to him as “LL Bean, Jr.”
They often walked to work together. He used crutches, perhaps from polio, she told us.
Well, now that I’m searching for clues I have found that there is no LL Bean, Jr. from the Maine family of Beans. From my research in google and two library books, I have learned that Leon L. Bean had two sons:
- Lester Carl Bean was born on July 17, 1900 in Freeport, Maine. He married Hazel Haskell on April 18, 1924, in Augusta, Maine. Lester died on October 4, 1967, in Portland, Maine. I read that Carl, as he was called, and Hazel had no children.
- Warren Bean was born in 1902. He and his wife had two girls, Linda and Diana.
Lester Carl Bean became an executive with the company. I can’t find anything on Warren.
Hedvig Johnson wrote on the back that this is where she knew “Lee Bean.”
On the back of the picture of the Slaughter Boarding House, Hedy wrote, “Lee Bean.”
Leon Gorman, the son of LL Bean’s daughter Barbara, and for many years CEO of the company, would have been too young. And his last name isn’t “Bean.”
I would love for someone who might have more information to comment and let us know who “Lee Bean” might have been.
Update: August 2, 2010: The mystery is solved!
Barbara Ann Davis
Posted at 03:34h, 31 JulyPat, I did some research on a Lee Bean/polio/Washington DC (thank you, google) and found this article by Meredith Bean McMath. It is called How to Grow a Mountain Man. One of the children was Lee Bean who contracted polio after his first year at college. He became a well known attorney and much respected man, husband and father. It is a delightful story, and fun to think mother might have known him from the Slaughter Boarding House in Washington DC.
Meredith Bean McMath
Posted at 10:39h, 30 JanuaryYes, I am Meredith Bean McMath, who wrote “How to Grow a Mountain Man”. My father was known as Lee Bean, as his father was known as LL
Indeed we are not from the Beans of Maine. Instead our beans go back a few generations on the hills of Hardy County, West Virginia.
My grandfather left already county when a young man to seek his fortune elsewhere. He settled in South Hill, Virginia, and that is where my father was born.
He was a college student at Hampden Sydney, and, well working at the icehouse in Southhill between his freshman and sophomore year, he contracted polio
Dad went on to become a lawyer, then a well-known lawyer, then a famous one – and although he’d laugh to hear me say it, it’s quite true. One of his accomplishments was serving on the Arlington school board during the segregation crisis. My father provided the swing vote to integrate Arlington schools.
My father used to tell stories from his days in DC, living at that boarding house, and although I can’t remember the exact stories ((and, oh, he was a storyteller – no doubt one reason for his being an excellent trial attorney! ), I do remember him referring to Hedy.
Pat DiGeorge
Posted at 12:01h, 30 JanuaryWonderful memories, Meredith. Thank you for your comments. I only wish my mother were still alive so we could share this with her.