Marion Bartlett Thurber | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 2 November 1973 88) | (aged
Other names | Marion Thurber Denby, Mrs. Edwin Denby |
Marion Bartlett Thurber (February 22, 1885 - November 2, 1973) was an American political spouse who managed her husband's legacy after his early death. [1]
Thurber was born in 1885 to Henry Thomas Thurber and Elizabeth Brady Croul, the oldest of five children. [2] She was named after Marion, Massachusetts, the same as Grover Cleveland's daughter. [3] [4] Her father was the personal secretary to Grover Cleveland beginning in 1893 and she spent some of her childhood in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. [5] Newspapers said she "got her first schooling in the White House kindergarten." [6]
She married Edwin Denby on March 18, 1911, after which they had a six-month honeymoon. [7] [8] They had two children, Edwin J. (1912) and Marion (1915). [9] They had a solid partnership. Denby referred to her as his "good scout" and "spunky comrade." [10] Thurber said of herself that she was "a contented happy wife...absolutely free for a desire for worldly success." [11] Thurber was supportive of Denby when he enlisted in the Marines as a private in 1917. [10] He was discharged in 1919 with the rank of major.
Thurber would often perform ceremonial functions of a political spouse including christening boats and airships when her husband was the United States Secretary of the Navy. This included the naming of the USS Shenandoah, the first rigid airship built by the Navy, which she named after the place she had grown up. [12] [13] She would also host local and visiting dignitaries such as Madame Curie who visited Washington D. C. in 1921 and President Harding in 1922. [14] [15] She was frequently in the society pages, such as when she was one of the main patronesses of the United Daughters of the Confederacy ball in Washington D. C. in 1921. [16]
Denby died in 1929 and Thurber turned to civics and set to memorializing him. She became president of the Women's City Club of Detroit. [17] She helped erect a "Denby Memorial" at Grand Circus Park in 1933 which memorialized when and where Denby had originally enlisted. [18] She donated the bulk of his papers to the University of Michigan and made other bequests to local art museums in Michigan. [19]
She died on November 2, 1973, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan. [1]
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.
USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. It was constructed during 1922–1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September 1923. It developed the U.S. Navy's experience with rigid airships and made the first crossing of North America by airship. On the 57th flight, Shenandoah was destroyed in a squall line over Ohio in September 1925.
Edwin Denby was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of the Navy in the administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge from 1921 to 1924. He also played a notable role in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal which took place during the Harding presidency. He was the son of Charles Harvey Denby, grandson of Graham N. Fitch, brother of Charles Denby, Jr., and uncle of dance critic Edwin Orr Denby.
Candace Wheeler, traditionally credited as the mother of interior design, was one of America's first woman interior and textile designers. She helped open the field of interior design to women, supported craftswomen, and promoted American design reform. A committed feminist, she intentionally employed women and encouraged their education, especially in the fine and applied arts, and fostered home industries for rural women. She also did editorial work and wrote several books and many articles, encompassing fiction, semi-fiction and non-fiction, for adults and children. She used her exceptional organizational skills to co-found both the Society of Decorative Art in New York City (1877) and the New York Exchange for Women's Work (1878); and she partnered with Louis Comfort Tiffany and others in designing interiors, specializing in textiles (1879-1883), then founded her own firm, The Associated Artists (1883-1907).
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The National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) is an American non-profit philanthropic music organization that promotes American music, performers, and composers. NFMC endeavors to strengthen quality music education by supporting "high standards of musical creativity and performance." NFMC headquarters are located in Greenwood, Indiana. Since its founding in 1898, the NFMC has grown into one of the world’s largest music organizations with club and individual members of all ages. The NFMC is chartered by the Congress of the United States, and is the only music organization member of the United Nations.
Colonel Charles Denby was a U.S. Union officer in the Civil War and diplomat. He was the father of Edwin C. Denby, a U.S. Representative from Michigan, and later Secretary of the Navy, and Charles Denby, Jr., a diplomat.
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber. The conservatory was officially declared defunct by the state of New York in 1952, although for all practical pedagogical purposes, it had ceased to function much earlier than that. Between its founding and about 1920, however, the conservatory played an important part in the education and training of musicians in the United States, and for decades Thurber attempted to turn it into a federally-supported national conservatory in a European style. A number of prominent names are associated with the institution, including that of Victor Herbert and Antonín Dvořák, director of the conservatory from Sep. 27, 1892 to 1895.
The 1895 Michigan Wolverines football team was an American football team that represented the University of Michigan in the 1895 college football season. In its second and final season under head coach William McCauley, the team compiled an 8–1 record, won seven of their games by shutouts, and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14.
Frederick William "Pa" Henninger was an American businessman and football player and coach. He played football for the University of Michigan from 1893 to 1896 and was the captain of the 1895 team that outscored their opponents by a combined score of 266 to 14. After receiving his degree, he was an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1899 and 1902. He worked as an engineer for the Detroit United Railway and later had a successful career as a manufacturer in Detroit.
The Dupont Circle Fountain, formally known as the Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont Memorial Fountain, is a fountain located in the center of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. It honors Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, a prominent American naval officer and member of the Du Pont family. The fountain replaced a statue of Du Pont that was installed in 1884. Designed by Henry Bacon and sculpted by Daniel Chester French, the fountain was dedicated in 1921. Prominent guests at the dedication ceremony included First Lady Florence Harding, Secretary of War John W. Weeks and Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby.
Giovanni Raphael Frank Villa, also known as "Count Villa" or "the Count," was an American football player, judge, and consular official. He played college football for Whitman College in 1893 and for the University of Michigan from 1893 to 1896. He was selected as a first-team All-Western player in 1895. He later became a consular official for Italy, a judge and gold prospector in Alaska, and a representative of the Great Northern Railroad. He also served in the U. S. Army during World War I.
Emma Azalia Hackley, also known as E. Azalia Hackley and Azalia Smith Hackley (1867–1922), was a concert soprano, newspaper editor, teacher, and political activist. An African American, she promoted racial pride through her support and promotion of music education for African Americans. She was a choir director and organized Folk Songs Festivals in African American churches and schools. Hackley studied music for years, including in Paris under opera singer Jean de Reszke. She was a music teacher who taught Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, and R. Nathaniel Dett. She founded the Vocal Normal Institute in Chicago.
Martha Louise Rayne (1836–1911) was an American who was an early woman journalist. In addition to writing and editing several journals, she serialized short stories and poems in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit Free Press, and the Los Angeles Herald. In addition to newspaper work, she published a guidebook of Chicago, etiquette books, and several novels. In 1886, she founded what may have been the first women's journalism school in the United States and four years later became a founding member and first vice president of the Michigan Woman's Press Association. Rayne was posthumously inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Mamie Geraldine Neale Bledsoe was an American educator and civil rights activist, director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Division of Michigan. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1983.
SS Chester A. Congdon was a steel-hulled American lake freighter in service between 1907 and 1918. She was built in 1907 by the Chicago Shipbuilding Company of South Chicago, Illinois, for the Holmes Steamship Company, and was intended to be used in the grain trade on the Great Lakes. She entered service on September 19, 1907, when she made her maiden voyage. In 1911, Salt Lake City was sold to the Acme Transit Company. A year later, she was transferred to the Continental Steamship Company, and was renamed Chester A. Congdon, after lawyer and entrepreneur Chester Adgate Congdon. She was involved in several accidents throughout her career.
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Henry Thomas Thurber was an American attorney.