HOT Magazine HOT Magazine - Issue 11, 12 Volume 5 | Page 43

(Article Reprinted from HOT Magazine June 2014 Issue) Connie in her younger days B y any measure, 95 year old Constance “Connie” Heinecke has led an amazing adventure filled life. From living across the street from John F. Kennedy in Washington DC to being tour guide to Marilyn Monroe in Japan to entertaining world famous boxer Jack Dempsey in her and her husband’s Hong Kong home. Did I mention that while living in Malta where they had a home for 7 years they were given just 24 hours to leave the country because the leftist government believed them to be CIA spies? Connie grew up in Philadelphia during the depression in a family of 7. She inherited her father’s sense of humor and was known as the “crazy one” in the family. Her memories of the depression were the soup kitchens. Her first job was at age nine selling peanut brittle her mother made to office workers in the newspaper section of town. The candy was individually wrapped with wax paper. Because the candy was sticky her customers complained that the wax paper stuck to the candy. The quick thinking youth’s reply was that you were supposed to eat the paper, just like the Japanese candies that were popular at the time which were wrapped in rice paper. Even though it was 86 years ago Connie can still name off all the stops on the train that took her from her home to the Philadelphia office towers she sold to. Connie and Roy When Connie was 17 a girl from her school came by her house with a boy she was seeing and the boy’s brother. The brother’s name was Roy Heinecke. Connie and Roy fell in love and were married in 1942. Neither one of them had much money even though both of them worked. Connie’s first job out of High School was working as a telephone operator while Roy was a U.S. Marine earning just 20 dollars a month. One fateful night Roy won 40 dollars in a poker game and they decided to use that money to get married. While Roy was off to war Connie lived in Philadelphia and then California. They had two children, Skip born in 1943 and Bill who was born 6 years later. When the war ended Roy was stationed in Japan. Roy told her not to come due to the bad conditions at the time but headstrong Connie had her own ideas. Bravely she sold all they owned and along with her two young boys boarded an Oiler ship for the 35 day trip, unannounced, to be with her husband in Japan. HOT Magazine 43