BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — To say Gracie Knox has provided a bit of local color to the borough over the years would be an understatement.
Meet Metuchen’s “pink lady.”
Her house is pink and white, inside and out. She has not one, but two pink cars, a Cadillac El Dorado and a Lincoln Continental. She likes to wear pink. A lot of pink.
“Everyone knows when I come into town because of my 1979 pink and white Cadillac,” she said.
Most people with any time in Metuchen know Knox, said Mayor Edmund O’Brien.
“Gracie is an institution in Metuchen,” he said. “She embodies all the values of Metuchen, and I don’t think there is a person in this town who doesn’t know her.”
She reminisced as she sat on her pink plastic couch last week about the days she traveled to the Waldorf Astoria in New York City every New Year’s Eve and danced to the music of Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians band.
“The reason why I decorate everything pink and white is because I thought my pink and white dance outfits were pretty,” said Knox.
The Lombardo New Year’s Eve Party was the longest running annual special. Lombardo’s version of “Auld Lang Syne” signaled the end of one year and the start of another.
“My best year on TV was when everyone saw me on TV dancing with Jim, my boyfriend at the time, and I was waving and smiling to everyone,” she said. “We were all by ourselves on the big screen. My family called me up and said, We saw you on TV and you were waving to everybody.’ ”
Knox’s parents, Catherine M. Flemming and John J. Knox, bought the 187-year-old house on Sheraton Avenue when they moved to the United States from Ireland. She was born and raised in the house.
Knox changed the house’s decor into pink and white after the 1960s.
She’s the youngest and last living member of her six siblings, which included three boys, William, Nicholas and James, and three girls, Mary, Loretta and Gracie. She declined to reveal her age.
Knox extravagantly decorates her house every holiday for all to see and enjoy. She also dons festive costumes for each holiday. This past Christmas she wore a Santa Claus suit with white boots.
“I like when people come and see the house,” said Knox.
Her house was decorated with Christmas lights wrapped around whitish gray garland; her gazebo featured Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus dolls and a replica of the Statue of Liberty bearing an American flag.
“The unique thing about my decorations is they are all artistic decorations,” said Knox. “A lady and her son said they come from Connecticut just to see my house every year because they heard about it.”
Knox also participates in the annual borough Memorial Day parade and the Winter Festival parade.
“I ride in my pink and white Cadillac El Dorado and I wave and smile to everybody,” she said.
“Gracie is a fixture in Metuchen, she is a very nice woman and we love looking forward to her participating in the parades with her pink Cadillac,” said Carolyn Woodruff, office administrator for the Metuchen Chamber of Commerce.
The Knox family owned the Knox Tavern on Route 27 near the Metuchen-Edison border, until it was sold in November 2004.
“My brother, Nicholas, opened the tavern 65 years ago, and when he passed away my sister, Loretta, took over the tavern, and after she passed away I took over,” she said.
She worked nights at the tavern after she came home from work at Bamberger’s, where she worked for more than 17 years.
One of her fondest memories came when she was in her 60s. Knox had entered the “Most Beautiful Legs” contest held at the Victorian Manor in Edison.
“I was competing with 18-year-olds, and I won first prize,” she said.