BIRTH NAME: Maria Marguerite Solares
BIRTH: 1885 07 28 New Orleans
FATHER: Ramon Solares
MOTHER: Juana Vinet
SIBLINGS: Ramon Pedro Solares Jr
Joseph Maria Solares "Pep"
Esperanza Magdalena Solares "Nina"
John Roman Solares "Jean"
Seraphin Francisco Solares "Frank"
Modesto Arcadio Solares "Dutch"
George Alice Solares* "Alice"
Clemence Solares* "Clem"
*( half sister: mother = Marie Houidobre)
MARRIAGE: 1905 10 18 New Orleans
SPOUSE: Robert Johnston Hepburn [1884-1956]
CHILDREN: Ashton Elmo Hepburn [1907-1972]
Howard Emerson Hepburn [1910-1966]
VOCATION: Homemaker
MILITARY: none
RELIGION: Roman Catholic (devout)
DEATH: 1971 03 27 New Orleans
NICKNAME: Maggie
OTHER:
[Frequently listed in documents with name Anglicized to Margaret]
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1885 - New Orleans, Louisiana Birth Records Index, 1790-1899
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Given: Maria Marguerite
Surname: Solares
Father: Ramon
Mother: Johama Vinet
Sex: F
Color: W
Birth Date:28 Jul 1885
Volume: 83 Page: 395
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[Author notes: Her mother's actual name was Juana appears
in other documents & lists as Joanna or Johanna. The spelling is a transcriber's error
from reading JohaNNa as JohaMa.
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Maggie in 1890s
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Marguerite Solares Hepburn in 1940s
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1905 - New Orleans, Louisiana Marriage Records Index, 1831-1925
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Name: Margaret Solares
Spouse: Robert Johnston Hepburn
Age: 20
Age: 21
Gender: F
Marriage Date: 18 Oct 1905
Volume: 27 Page: 244
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1971 - State of Louisiana Death Certificate
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Author notes:
Cause of Death = Diabetic Acidosis
An imbalanced pH affects all cellular activity in the body leading to the progression
of most degenerative diseases. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/diabetic+acidosis
She was eighty six years old.
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Personal Remembrances of Maggie Hepburn
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Maggie Hepburn
by grandson Wayne Hepburn 2006 06 02
One of my favorite stories about my grandmother, generally called "Grams" by children, is
her telling me of her first days at Catholic school about age seven. She lived in a home full
of men. Her eldest sister Magdalena was already married by the time Maggie started school, and
her father Ramon had not yet remarried following Juana's death in 1889.
Her teacher, an Ursuline nun, led the class in reciting the "Hail Mary" in the
English language. She went home and told her father she was sure the Virgin did not understand a
word of it because she had always prayed the Ave Maria at home. Both her parents immigrated from
Spain and Spanish and English were spoken at home. Yet she had no accent whatever.
She was fifty-two years old when I was born so all my life she was to me an old lady; a very
sweet and caring old lady.
On her living room wall at 906 Harding Drive she kept a photo of me taken when I was four
years of age. [It continues to be my favorite photo of myself]. She addressed me as 'Wayne darlin'
most times, and if something was making me sad it was 'poor darlin'. She referred to all family
member who had troubles as 'poor darlin'.
I vividly remember Sunday dinner in her home on Harding Drive. She made ice cream, with
real vanilla beans, in aluminum ice trays cooled in the tiny freezer compartment of the refrigerator.
For a time, my cousin Bob [Robert J II] lived with Grams & Dad. I sued to visit often. There
was an unused garage behind the house and Bob had set up a "laboratory" in it, mainly for his
personal experiments with flammables. I keenly joined in. We developed a process for inflating
balloons with acetylene gas, generated from calcium carbide and water, plus our innovation using
cobalt chloride to add oxygen to the mix. When the balloon was filled, we detached it from the
big Pepsi bottle generator, stuck in a wax coated cork with a fuse, homemade from ordinary string
and sodium or potassium nitrate solution, and lit them off.
They typically exploded with a whooosh rather than a bang, so one day we placed the
acetylene balloon under an inverted bucket in the driveway and lit it off.
The bucket was launched skyward about thirty feet or so, and its trajectory happened to
bring it down onto the roof with a thud, after which it rolled off and landed in the driveway
with a loud bang.
The side of the kitchen flew open! Grams came out onto the stoop looking at us with very
wide eyes. With palms placed against the sides of her head, she wailed, "Oh! My Gawd. You're
gonna kill yourselves." She was so upset we had to promise no more explosions. Poor darlin.
As time passes I find I am more inclined to remember my grandmother for her faith and
loyalty that any other traits. Until her doctor forbad taking a city bus downtown, she went to
Mass at Jesuit Church on Baronne Street every Tuesday and every Friday, to pray for the likes of
me and other offspring. She used a cane to help board the bus. Finally, it had to stop.
Her husband was dead. She lived on Wilson Drive with her eldest son Ashton ... actually,
he lived with her. Ashton did what he could to take care of his mother. He drove to Mass at
Holy Rosary every Sunday that she was able to go. Between times, if I (then a young married adult)
popped in to visit her, I'd find her sitting in the darkened living room saying rosaries.
In short, she was a blessing to me.
I had to attain the age of forty before I recognized this.
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If you have personal knowledge about this person you wish share please send to webmaster
at address on home page of this site.
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"Maggie" attended day school at the Ursuline Academy on Chartres Street, New Orleans.
The Ursuline Order established a convent in New Orleans and began educating girls there in 1727.
The Old Ursuline Convent is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley and the only one to
survive from French Colonial times. Constructed in 1745, it is 25 years younger than the
City of New Orleans, but 25 years older than the United States. It is a registered Federal
landmark. [http://www.accesscom.net/ursuline/page2.htm]
The map shows the site of the original school in the Vieux Carre [French Quarter] area.
From their home at 1213 Touro Street [see 1900 census and map] she could walk the mile and a
half or so to school. More likely one of her older brothers transported her until she reached
an age suitable for riding a streetcar.
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A little bit of serendipity: Marguerite went to school with the Ursuline sisters at the end
of the 19th century. In 1845, when the new Ursuline school was built on Chartres Street
in New Orleans, Marguerite's future husband Robert Hepburn's father Samuel Hepburn was
working in Matamoros, Mexico with the Ursuline sisters there.
The images below depict the convent and school buildings. Photos were obtained from a search at
the Louisiana Digital Library online site. [http://louisdl.louislibraries.org]
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Title: Archbishopric, Chartres Ursuline Street
Photographer: Mugnier, George François, 1855-1936
Description: A view of the archbishopric on Chartres and Ursuline Streets.
Archbishop Antoine Blanc memorial, including Old Ursuline Convent and St. Mary's Church.
The Old Ursuline Convent is the oldest building of record in the Mississippi Valley.
Notes 18 X 13 cm. Accession #: 09813.556.1 (C-156)
Date Between 1880 and 1920
Source: Louisiana State Museum (http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/)
Rights: Physical rights are retained by the Louisiana State Museum.
Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.
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Title: Old Archbishop's House, Chartres Street
Photographer: Moore, Frank B.
Description Built by the Ursuline Sisters as a convent 1748-52, the building was donated by
them in 1824 to the Archbishop of the Diocese of New Orleans, who used it as his residence.
The chapel to the left was built in 1845.
Notes: Glass plate negative; 20 X 25 cm; Accession #145-602
Source: UNO Library, Louisiana & Special Collections Dept (http://library.uno.edu/)
Coverage-Spatial: Chartres Street; French Quarter; Vieux Carre; New Orleans (La.)
Rights: Physical rights and copyrights retained by UNO Library.
Object File Name: fbm000537
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Title: Ursuline row houses in New Orleans Louisiana in 1936
Creator: Koch, Richard
Description B&W photo, June 1936. Ursuline Row Houses. Rear views. 1114 Chartres St.
New Orleans, La. Front of buildings is at 1107-1133 Decatur St.
Notes: Photographer: Richard Koch. Part of the Historic American Building Survey.
Reproduced from the collections of the Library of Congress.
Date: 1936-06
Source: State Library of Louisiana (http://www.state.lib.la.us)
Coverage-Spatial: New Orleans (La.)
Rights: Physical rights are retained by the State Library of Louisiana.
Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.
Object File Name: hp004273
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