The lady who christened the USS Cony, Alice Sleight (See pictures under Jack Smith)
Mary Cony was the great grandmother of Alice Corning Hume Sleight the lady from Eastport who christened the USSCony.
Alice was a long time Librarian in Eastport at the Peavey Memorial Library where we have placed a granite stone in honor of the Cony.
Alice Hume Sleight was the daughter of Bessie Fabins Corning who was the daughter of Lucy Stow Stevens who was the daughter of Mary Cony who was the sister to Joseph Cony the father of Joseph SavilleCony.
Obituary of Alice C.H. Sleight
RYE (Maine)- Alice Corning Hume Sleight, 98, passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004, after a brief illness, at Webster at Rye Health and Retirement Community in Rye.
She was the daughter of George Seward and Bessie Fabens Corning Hume. She graduated from the Eastport, Maine, public schools and from Howard Seminary and Kathryn Gibbs in Boston. She worked for Houghton Mifflin Publishing House in Boston for several years.
Upon the death of her father, she returned to Eastport to manage the S.B. Hume Insurance Agency. She also worked as an assistant to Dexter Cooper, who designed the Quoddy Tidal Power Project. She later served as librarian of the Peavy Memorial Library in Eastport for 24 years and remained in Eastport until 1983, when she and her husband relocated to Portsmouth. She returned to her cottage on Boyden Lake during summers until the time of her death.
A descendant of an Eastport naval hero of the Civil War, Joseph E. Cony, she was asked in 1942 to christen the destroyer the USS Cony, built in the Bath (Maine) Shipyard, and to rechristen the ship after World War II, when it again saw service in the Korean Conflict.
She was a charter member of the Eastport Literary Round Table and a member of the Washington Street Baptist Church. During her years in Portsmouth, she became active in the North Church of Portsmouth, UCC. She was a member of the Rye Arts Study Group and the Portsmouth Garden Club.
She is survived by her two daughters, Elizabeth S. Canney of Portsmouth and Ann S. Harrison of Readfield, Maine; two sons-in-law, Calvin A. Canney and Millard D. Harrison; five grandchildren, Lisa Ann Chesaux of Portland, Sara J. Leonard of Falmouth, Maine, Thomas C. Canney of Jamaica Plain, Mass., William S. Harrison of East Winthrop, Maine, and Jill H. Harrison of Newport, R.I.; six great-grandchildren; a half-sister-in-law, Mrs. Hartland (Gladys) Kelley of West Lubec, Maine; two nieces, Anne P. Rugh of Lubec and Portland, Maine, and Mary P. Collegeman of Bellevue, Wash.; and a nephew, Earland Sleight of Orono, Maine.
She was predeceased by her husband, William R. Sleight.
Roger,
I have looked up the complete listing of all of the Fletcher Class Destroyers built during WWII. There were 175 of those ships built. CONY was the sixteenth to enter service according to the listed commissioning dates. The prototype ship, USS FLETCHER DD445, was not the first since she was commissioned 30 June 42. USS NICHOLAS DD449 commissioned 4 June 42 was the first to enter service. The early Fletchers, of which CONY was one, were distinguished by having a rounded pilothouse bridge structure surmounted by a high 5" gun director barbette. In later Fletchers, they changed to a squared-off pilot house with a wraparound bridge and a low director barbette. This change enabled the conning officer to move from one side of the bridge to the other without having to go through the pilothouse. It lowered the center of gravity, and it was easier to fabricate.
The Fletchers have been referred to as "the perfect fighting destroyers" in which the naval designers finally got it right.
Did you know that THE USS CONY has a memorial plaque placed on a wall of the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is placed just above a plaque for the USS INDIANAPOLIS. Our plaque cost our crew association $2500, but it was worth it as it will be seen by many visitors to the memorial. It was dedicated in a ceremony attended by our people who came to the May 2000 reunion in Baltimore. I was privileged to deliver a short memorial address on the occasion.
You made reference to my knowledge of the CONY's history. I do have the war diary to refer to plus I am blessed with having a good memory for details even though those WWII days were a long time ago. I cherish my memories of life aboard ship even though some of those times were grueling and hazardous. To me, at the age I was at the time, it was one great adventure.
Regards,
Russ Poe
U.S.S.Cony (DD/DDE-508) Memorial
Description: Rose Granite marker, with inscription and outline of U.S.S. Cony, placed in May, 1997, as a monument to the ship and crews, the men who died on ship in W.W.II, and to Eastport Civil War hero Joseph S. Cony.
Location: In front of Peavey Memorial Library. Water Street, Eastport, ME 04631
Open to the Public?: Yes
Bus Tours Welcome?: Yes
Dates Open: Year round
Hours Open: Normal Daylight Hours
Items for Sale: None
Responsible Organization: Peavey Library, Water Street, Eastport, ME 04631; Phone: 853-4021
