Skip to content

Gussie Manlove UNCOVERED!

2011-02-25 · story · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: song or performance, community lore, self promotion

Hank tells the life story that Nerdfighters and John uncovered for Gussie Manlove, the widow on the Knightstown tombstone, through her many marriages and name changes, with parody-song interludes, then plugs his Miami planetarium show.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Nerdfighteria and John have tracked down Gussie; there used to be many women named Gussie

  • ★★★ Hank announces that with Nerdfighteria's hard work and John's detective work they have tracked down Gussie Audrey Horsey Gowen Manlove Brown. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ Hank says the research also showed that there used to be a lot of women named Gussie. — 00:00:12

00:00:18 — Gussie's life: Horsey, Gowen, Manlove, Brown - marriages, divorce, typesetting, widowhood, Indianapolis house

  • ★★ From the marriage record of the couple on the tombstone, Hank says, Gussie was born Gussie Audrey Horsey and was listed as a divorcée when she married Walter Manlove. — 00:00:18
  • ★★ Hank says Gussie's family took in boarders, among them a 28-year-old man, Charles Gowen, when Gussie was 16. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Gussie and Charles R Gowen had a daughter, Mary, born in 1901 just after they married, when Gussie was 17 or 18; they divorced soon after and Charles kept custody. — 00:00:43
  • ★★ Perhaps because of her divorce, Hank says, Gussie figured she would never marry again and became a typesetter, which she did for much of her life. (hedged) — 00:01:08
  • ★★ In 1911, at 28, Gussie married Walter Manlove; four years later he died of tuberculosis, which produced the tombstone that started the search. — 00:01:17
  • ★★ For ten years after Walter's death, Hank says, Gussie lived in boarding houses with other single women, worked as a typesetter, once sued a mattress salesman, and went by Audrey G Manlove. — 00:01:35
  • ★★ In 1927 Gussie married James Earl Brown, becoming Audrey G Brown; they bought a house in a nice Indianapolis neighborhood and lived there the rest of their lives. — 00:02:02 · Indianapolis
  • ★★ Using the information gathered, Hank says, John found the obituary and final resting place of Audrey G Brown. — 00:02:10 · John Green
  • ★ Their house is now for sale; Hank says viewers can look at the very strange interior photos online, or buy it and become part of the story. (playful) — 00:02:22 · Indianapolis

00:02:36 — Closing ballad to Gussie Audrey Horsey Gowen Manlove Brown

00:02:55 — Thanks to John and the Your Pants researchers: everything is more complicated than it first appears

  • ★★ Hank thanks John and the Your Pants Nerdfighters who spent hours tracking down her story, which proves again that everything is more complicated than it at first appears. — 00:02:55 · John Green, Nerdfighteria

00:03:05 — Hank's shows in Miami, Seattle and Portland: a planetarium show in Miami on the way to Haiti with Water.org

  • ★★ Hank tells viewers in Miami, Seattle or Portland to come see him play a show; there is a ticket link for South Florida. — 00:03:05
  • ★★ Hank has scheduled a Miami show on the evening of Tuesday, March 8, in the Miami Science Museum's planetarium, since he will be in Miami on the way to Haiti with Water.org; tickets cost money. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Hank says he is going to Haiti with Water.org. — 00:03:15

Humor (significant)

  • Hank reveals Gussie's maiden name, Gussie Audrey Horsey. — 00:00:20

    “being the worst possible name for a young lady.”

  • Gussie was 16 when 28-year-old boarder Charles Gowen lived with her family. — 00:00:42

    “Don't stand so close to Gussie...”

  • Gussie keeps changing her name, now going by Audrey G Manlove: 'It's like she's messing with us!' — 00:01:55

    “They call me Gussie, say I'm a Horsey, Manlove, or Gowen; always the same. That's not my name...”

  • Hank's closing ballad to Gussie, whose real grave is not the Knightstown one. — 00:02:36

    “we found a grave that wasn't yours in Knightstown-town”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Gussie

Also: People: Charles Gowen · James Earl Brown · Walter Manlove

Works: All by Myself (“Will Gussie be... all by herself?”) · Don't Stand So Close to Me (“Don't stand so close to Gussie”) · That's Not My Name (“They call me Gussie, say I'm a Horsey”) · Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (“Where have all the Gussies gone?”)

Organizations: Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science · Water.org

Places: Haiti · Indianapolis · Knightstown, Indiana · Miami · Portland, Oregon · Seattle

Only in the description or credits: Your Pants

Also centred on Gussie: Thoughts from Places: Small Town America

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 3 videos, 2011-02-25 – 2011-03-02.