It all started with a smiley-faced ashtray, a gift from 13 years ago.
Katie Hathaway didn’t think the gift from her granddaughter would ignite her passion for smiley face collections and decorum. On the corner of W. 14th St., sits a small house that sticks out among its neighbors. The front yard is covered with statues ranging from a monkey as tall as Hathaway and a hippo that looks nearly impossible to budge. Of course, all are hand painted yellow with smiley faces. Estimating at least 100 smiley-faced pieces, Hathaway keeps adding and creating.
“I never thought I would be known for my concrete smiley faces, but if that’s what it is, then that’s what it is,” Hathaway said. “It’s not a bad thing to make people smile.”
Along with the statues, Hathaway’s roof sports a giant, painted smiley face. About three years ago, Hathaway woke up early one morning and decided to drag a ladder outside and paint a smiley face on her roof. A neighbor walked outside and climbed up with her and helped. After she had the house reroofed four months ago, Hathaway worried her rooftop smiley face was never going to reappear. Then a family friend helped repaint the smiley face on her roof.
Priding herself on her “drawing circles” ability, Hathaway has a method to her madness. She uses a six-foot round rug as a circumference and uses cardboard cutouts for the eyes. For the big smile, she uses her steady hand. The fence surrounding her home is decked out with smiley faces representing each holiday, including a pumpkin for Halloween, Santa Claus, a bunny rabbit and a patriotic one dedicated to 9/11.
“I am not an artist, I have a pattern,” she said.
Hathaway has heard many assumptions about her not-so-humble abode. Some strangers thought she was just overly obsessed and Hathaway’s grandchildren used to call her a hippie in her younger days. But all of those accusations are wrong.
As Hathaway tapped her cigarette into an ashtray in the middle of her round, dark wooden kitchen table, she explained.
“Let happy in, cause it’s there and when happy comes, enjoy it,” she said. “Sad is always coming. If you can enjoy the happiness, then you can make it through the sadness.”
Growing up in the hills of Virginia, Hathaway referred to herself as the “original coal miner’s daughter.” She walked to school without shoes on a dirt road and was given two outfits from the Sears catalog. Even when Hathaway was young, she did not fret about her minimalistic life.
“You can’t miss something you never had,” Hathaway said.
Now 62 years old, Hathaway lives in her home with her husband, Steve, where she frequently hosts her kids and her grandchildren for visits.
“I like to tell people my smiley faces are my toys, because I didn’t have toys as a child,” she said.
When she first started, people used to leave bags on her front door filled with smiley-faced pieces, including cups, bow ties and fans.
Hathaway, citing her own observations, said nine out of 10 people like her decorations. She is used to her home being photographed and videotaped. She and her family call them “slow movers,” people who walk by slowly by and stare. But Hathaway doesn’t mind. She encourages it.
“I always say ‘sure,’ I’ll take the picture for you,” Hathaway said.
Hathaway’s niece, BB, died a little over a week ago. Hathaway said she practically raised BB, who was 43 years old. As Hathaway’s eyes welted with tears, she had positive words to say about her beloved niece.
“BB was so bright and cheery-eyed,” Hathaway said. “She was always making me happy.”
Hathaway looked at her smiley face embellished yard through her window.
“Looking outside my window doesn’t do it alone, but it helps,” she said. “Whatever helps you get through the day, then that’s what you do.”
As Hathaway took a drag of her cigarette, her eyes started to water and her voice choked a bit.
“I lost a very precious person in my life and I have to face that,” she said. “BB wouldn’t want me to close the curtains and be a person that I have never been.” Hathaway exhaled the smoke and smiled. “She wants me to be the Smiley Face Lady and that’s what I’m going to be.”
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