The day our Great Aunt Simone Vanophem Shaw was born, her father dunked his finger into his glass, pressed it to his baby’s lips, and pronounced, “May you always have a taste for the finer things in life.” And Simone always did.
After fleeing Belgium during the German invasion, Simone grew up stylish, worldly, and independent. At her father’s Jualin Mine in Alaska, the miners picked berries for her, a Chilkat Indian chief asked for her hand in marriage, and she trapped the very furs she later wore at royal galas in Paris.
After the war, father and daughter moved to a New York City apartment. Sim, playing the piano one bright afternoon, heard a voice singing along next door. She stopped to listen. He finished the whole, damn song. Walking into the hallway, she met her future husband, Sam Shaw, Jr., son of Samuel T. Shaw, co-owner of the Grand Union Hotel and a world-famous art patron. The two were soon known as “Sim-Sam.”
Sam and Sim traveled and lived glamorously in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Provence. As the story goes, Simone bought Casino Mine Ranch for her father, but she and Sam felt drawn to this place, and made their home out here, near nothing at all.
Simone, as we remember her, wore dungarees, tended her garden, swam in ice-cold waters, and warbled a devastatingly accurate grouse call. For special occasions, which were frequent, she opened her cedar closet full of furs, and donned white gloves, heels, and pearls. We are certain that she would approve of our venture.