Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

Every morning, when the kid goes off to school, I try to write something. I always make an attempt to get one article done per day, which usually works, but it gets a little tougher when I don’t have any ideas. So I’ve been known to ask for suggestions. And the day this one is published is my daughter’s birthday, so I asked her if she had any special birthday requests for a column.

“I wouldn’t mind reading about Molly Fox,” she said.

Molly Fox. My daughter wants to read about Molly Fox. There’s a good idea.

Mary Ann Valentine was born in Renovo, and married Ira Fox of Lock Haven, becoming Molly Fox. Ira died at a fairly young age, and Molly was left in charge of running their business on Main Street. The building still bears her name across the top: “Fox Building.”

Molly was a successful business owner and into educational causes, but mostly, people remember her clothing.

She was known for hanging out on the street wearing eye-glaring colors, clothing that was outrageous for the time. Remember, this was the 1930s. Today, these same clothes wouldn’t rate a second glance, but back then they were considered scandalous.

Molly once confessed to a friend that she didn’t always wear the clothes. Sometimes, she had to travel by train to do business outside of Clinton County. On those occasions, she took along a more businesslike outfit, and changed clothes on the train before she got there. She wanted to make a good impression and look professional while she was doing business, but in her own community of Lock Haven, Molly was fine with standing out.

There was an interesting incident with Molly in the late 1940s. Her neighbor had decided to paint his house.

Starting from the top down, he propped a ladder up and climbed it, beginning to paint. Molly appear with a gun and told him that the ladder was about six inches on her property. He climbed down—Fast—And removed the ladder.

The neighbor figured he’d lean out the window and paint whatever he could reach from there, and maybe do the rest later when Molly wasn’t home. It seemed like a good enough plan, until Molly appeared in her upstairs window with the gun, declaring it her airspace.

At this point, the neighbor called the police. When they arrived, it turned out that the gun was an old war souvenir, and didn’t even work anymore. The neighbor was pretty careful around Molly for a while afterward, though.

Molly died on Christmas Day of 1956, and was buried in Highland. When her will was read, it was a bit of a surprise on several levels.

Molly had left a lot of money to the students of Lock Haven University, to be placed into a scholarship to send students of “good moral character” to school. She also left instructions that were, with all due respect, weird.

She ordered that no body but her own ever be buried in her grave, and that none of her properties ever be sold again. Oddest of all, she ordered that her neighbor never be allowed to build windows in his house, which is completely unenforceable. This all tied the will up in court for three years, until it was finally ironed out, and the money released.

And it was more money than expected. While the whole thing was in court, the money had been earning interest, giving Molly the opportunity to maximize her donation. She left the scholarship more money than she’d actually had. And that seems to have been her plan, all along.