Good morning John; I am extremely excited to announce that today, with the hard work
of Nerdfighteria — and, I might add, with some amazing detective work by you — we
have tracked down Gussie Audrey Horsey Gowen Manlove Brown.
We also learned a lot of things about the past, including the fact that there used to
be a lot of women named Gussie.
[singing] Where have all the Gussies gone?
[spoken] So, starting with a marriage record of the two people found on the tombstone,
we were able to devise that Gussie used to be Gussie Audrey Horsey; Gussie Horsey, of
course, being the worst possible name for a young lady.
But interestingly, in her marriage license to Walter Manlove, she was listed as a divorcée.
Well, it turns out that her family took on boarders, and one of those boarders was a
28-year-old man named Charles Gowen. Gussie, at that time, was 16 years old.
[singing] Don't stand so close to Gussie...
[spoken] Through some amazing detective work, we have discovered that Gussie and Charles
R Gowen had a baby daughter named Mary. She was born in 1901 when Gussie was 17 or 18,
just after they got married.
They divorced soon after the birth of Mary, and Charles kept custody of the girl.
[singing] Little Gussie, what have you done?
[spoken] This marks her first two name changes: During the marriage, to Gussie Audrey Gowen;
and then after the marriage, to Gussie Gowen Horsey.
Gussie, perhaps because of her divorce, figured that she was never gonna get married, and
so she took up a trade. She became a typesetter, something that she did for a long time in
her life.
But then, in 1911, ten years later, when she was 28 years old, she did find a man. She
found Walter Manlove. Now, Gussie is Gussie Gowen Manlove.
And then, tragedy struck. Four years after their marriage, Walter died of tuberculosis,
resulting in the tombstone that started this whole search.
Gussie had, by now, changed her name again to Gussie Audrey Manlove.
Then, for ten years after the death of Walter Manlove she lived in boarding houses with
other single women, working as a typesetter, and at one point suing a mattress salesman.
[singing] Will Gussie be... all by herself?
[spoken] During this period, she changed her name again — this time, her first name — going
by Audrey G Manlove instead of Gussie A Manlove.
It's like she's messing with us!
[singing] They call me Gussie, say I'm a Horsey, Manlove, or Gowen; always the same. That's
not my name...
[spoken] But then, in 1927, Gussie married again, to a man named James Earl Brown.
This marks the final name change of Gussie, to Audrey G Brown.
Using all of this information that we figured out, John Green was able to find the obituary
and the final resting place of Audrey G Brown, our Gussie.
They bought a house together in a nice neighborhood in Indianapolis. They lived in that house
the rest of their lives.
Their house is now for sale... and you can go on the Internet and look at the pictures
of the inside of that house, and it is very strange.
And if you want, you can buy that house, and you could be a part of this very strange,
long, epic story of Gussie Audrey Horsey Gowen Manlove Brown.
[singing] Gussie Audrey Horsey Gowen Manlove Brown, we found a grave that wasn't yours
in Knightstown-town, so we did a lotta research, and we tracked you down. I hope that you don't
mind our... pokin' around.
[spoken] Thank you to John and all of the nerdfighters in Your Pants who worked hard
tirelessly, hours and hours of time, to track down all of the fascinating information about
this woman's life... proving, once again, that everything is more complicated than it
at first appears.
But if you live in Miami, Seattle, or Portland, something isn't complicated: You should come
see me play a show.
That is right; I have scheduled a Miami show and it's coming up very soon, on the evening
of March 8th, Tuesday.
The reason I am going to be in Miami is somewhat complicated and I don't have time to discuss
it right now. Really. But basically, I am going to be going with water.org to Haiti,
and I have a night — an evening — in Miami in which I'm not doing anything, so I decided,
"Heck, I should rent a planetarium and play a show!"
Seriously. I'm playing a show at the Miami Science Museum, in their planetarium! I am
so geekin' out about this!
But since it costs some money to rent a planetarium, it does cost money to get into the planetarium
to see the show, and there is a link for those of you who are in south Florida to buy tickets
to come and see me in Miami.
Exciting stuff going on throughout Nerdfighteria. John, I will see you on Monday.