Katherine Hepburn was known for being one of the most famous movie stars of all time, but to Peter Bulkeley, she was just the down-to-earth friend he’d had since he was a child.

“Kate was a distant cousin of mine, and our families were good friends,” he said to Closer Weekly recently. “When I met her in 1931, I was 2 weeks old. She changed my diaper.”

Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1907, Hepburn grew up spending summers at her family’s house in the quaint Fenwick section of Old Saybrook. Even after she launched her incredibly successful film career in 1932, Hepburn returned to Connecticut as often as she could, and she ended up living there full time in her old age.

“People of Fenwick wouldn’t ever bother her,” Bulkeley said. “We were in awe of what she accomplished but not in awe of her personally. She was just one of us.”

“She was a very feisty person,” he added. “If things didn’t go her way, look out! She was a very good golfer. I caddied for her occasionally when I was a youngster, but she preferred to carry her own bag.”

Bulkeley went on to say that Hepburn was fiercely protective of her private life. However, there were still rare moments when he got glimpses of her legendary romances.

“One afternoon down at our little community beach, this seaplane came right into the harbor, and it turned out the pilot was Howard Hughes,” he recalled. “They were pretty hot and heavy.”

Hepburn and Hughes dated for three years from 1935-1938. Then came her iconic romance with Hollywood leading man Spencer Tracy, who she engaged in a 27 year affair with. Bulkeley remembers meeting Tracy when he went to deliver a newspaper to Hepburn’s house, and the actress invited him inside to cool down over a glass of orange juice. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he walked into the kitchen and saw Tracy sitting there!

“She obviously adored him,” said Bulkeley. “You could see it in the way she looked at him and patted his arm.”

Hepburn was devastated when Tracy died of a heart attack in 1967. After retiring from acting some years later, Hepburn moved to Connecticut full-time, living there until her death in 2003 at the age of 96. Bulkeley said that in her final years, Hepburn stayed active around town and was fiercely loyal to her friends.

“When she was in her mid-80s, she was still riding her bicycle,” he said.

A few years before Hepburn died, Bulkeley remembered seeing her pedaling away while he was painting a fire hydrant green.

“She stopped and said, ‘Peter, what are you doing? All fire hydrants should be red!’” he recalled. “Then she rode off. That was Kate!”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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