LAKEVILLE — Charlotte (Hall) Reid, first selectman of Salisbury from 1973 to 1989 and a reporter and columnist for The Lakeville Journal for 10 years afterward, died Aug. 20, 2011, at Sharon Hospital. She was 93 and lived on Porter Street.She was born on June 8, 1918, at Charter Oak Hospital in Hartford. Family lore was that cows crossing the road at the base of Avon Mountain caused a torturous delay for her mother’s arrival at the hospital. She was the daughter of the late Alfred Bates Hall, a teacher at The Hotchkiss School, and Edna (Spurr) Hall.Her grandfather, E.W. Spurr, founded a lumber, coal and hardware store that eventually became Herrington’s on Farnam Road. He drove his horse and buggy from Falls Village to work every day.Mrs. Reid attended elementary school in Lakeville in what is now a house at 240 Main St. with a Mrs. Tracy as the teacher. She was one of two graduates in her eighth-grade class — the other was Mary Helen Hawley, sister of Jack Hawley. She graduated from high school at the Great Barrington School for Girls in the former Searles Castle.She earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in New York City, graduating in 1939, and then did graduate work at Bank Street College in New York and later Fairfield University. She received a master’s degree from Fairfield in education and counseling.She was the widow of Gordon S. Reid, who died in 1981. They were married in an evening service in The Hotchkiss School chapel in January 1943 and lived in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the State Department, until 1954, when they moved to the Hall home on Elm Street in Lakeville. Gordon Reid taught at Salisbury School and Mrs. Reid did psychological testing at what is now CMHA’s Northwest Center for Family Services.In 1973, she ran for first selectman of Salisbury, certain that as a Democrat and a woman she was doomed to lose. She won and served for the next 16 years. She was honored by former Gov. Ella Grasso as the state’s first female first selectman. A Democrat from the days of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, she also served as a delegate to state party conventions.In 1989, she decided not to run again and became a reporter for The Lakeville Journal, where she worked for 10 years, writing on a wide variety of topics, including a front page column entitled, “Have You Noticed?”An avid birder, she spent many happy days scanning skies throughout the Northeast with her longtime friend and fellow former selectman, George Kiefer.She served on numerous boards and commissions and was a trustee of Salisbury School.She is survived by her sons Douglas and Daniel Reid of Lakeville, Dwight Reid of Peru, Mass., and David Reid of Rumford, R.I.; her daughters-in-law Erin, Holly and Coree Reid and Lu Cribari; her grandchildren, Casey Reid, Abigail Reid, Yasmin (Reid) Wilkinson, Noah Reid, Andie Reid, Andrew Reid and Jon Reid She became a great-grandmother on April 30 with the arrival of Elly Hall Wilkinson.She was predeceased by her granddaughter, Emily Reid O’Connor.Her burial will be private. A memorial service will be held at the Congregational Church in Salisbury at 11 a.m. on Sept. 24.Donations may be sent to the Gordon Reid Scholarship Fund at the Salisbury School.Arrangements are under the care of the Newkirk Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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