Nancy Susan Reynolds (Interview 1): Reynolda House Museum of American Art Oral History Project

Interview 1: 5 May 1980, Winston-Salem, NC

Daughter of Katharine and R. J. Reynolds
Interviewer: Lu Ann Jones
Four interviews in 1980 with the first taking place in Winston-Salem, NC and the others at Quarry Farm in Greenwich, CT

Nancy Susan Reynolds (1910-1985), youngest daughter of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds, was interviewed by Lu Ann Jones in the summer of 1980 as part of the Reynolda House Museum of American Art Oral History Project. Over the course of four interview sessions, Reynolds intimately discussed her parents and early childhood, growing up at Reynolda, and what life was like for her and her three siblings after their parents’ death.

In the first interview conducted 5 May 1980, Nancy Reynolds recollects early memories of her father, R.J. Reynolds, who died in 1918 at age 61 when she was only eight years old. Remembering her father, she says, “… he was quite old to have started a family. … He was so delighted, I think, to have a family all of a sudden that it was something really, really special to him. … I have a very warm feeling when I think about him.”

During her interview, Reynolds recalls a number of memories from the family’s first house at 666 West Fifth Street in Winston-Salem, where Nancy grew up prior to moving to Reynolda. Her parents held numerous parties at the home, including an annual Halloween party, bridge parties, and other soirees for Winston-Salem socialites. She also speaks about many of the neighboring families on Fifth Street—her Uncle Will Reynolds and his wife Kate Bitting Reynolds, who lived next door; the Bowman Grays; and the Lasater, Rich, and Cone families—and describes the community’s closeness and the interconnections in generations that followed.

After the family’s move to Reynolda, a typical day for Nancy included reading a lot and riding horses all over the property, particularly her mother’s horse, Kentucky Belle. Additionally, Reynolds reminisces about the employees who lived and worked at Reynolda, including John Carter, Marjorie Carter, Savannah Jones, Robert Holden, Albert Wharton, Lizzie Thompson, and, in particular, Henrietta van den Berg, or Bum as she was known to the Reynolds children. “She [Bum] was a very important member of our household,” Nancy explains, “Oh, she bossed my mother…She called mother ‘Dearie.’ But Mother was pretty strong…and I think a little jealous of Bum sometimes, because she did have so much influence over us.”

Reynolds’ adolescence was a prominent topic in her first interview session. She relates the time after her mother’s death when she lived at Reynolda with her siblings under the guardianship of Will Reynolds and J. Edward Johnston, Katharine Reynolds’ second husband. Reynolds describes going to Reynolds High School before being pulled out to attend private school.