Mary Landon Baker (b. August 15, [1] 1901; [2] died 1961) was a rich American socialite and heiress famous for her romantic life. [3] [4] Newspapers worldwide covered her love life with Allister McCormick, whom she repeatedly left at the altar in the early 1920s. [4]
In 1926 she was briefly engaged to Bojidar Pouritch, who worked as a Yugoslav diplomat; a New York Times correspondent stated their engagement caused, "the greatest excitement since the European war". [4] [5]
Among those she rejected as possible husbands were also an English Lord, a rich Spaniard, and an Irish prince. [4] She reportedly had received 65 marriage proposals by the time she died, but never married. [6] The New York Times reported that the theater actor Barry Baxter died of a heart attack on the day that Baker broke up with him. [7]
Baker was apparently enamoured for most of her life with the British politician and writer Henry "Chips" Channon who refers to her repeatedly in his published diaries. [8]
Baker's parents were Chicago lawyer and financier Alfred L. Baker and Mary Corwith. She had an older sister, Isabelle, [2] whose married name in 1926 was Mrs. Robert M. Curtis [9] and in 1934, Mrs. Isabelle Baker Curtis Welch, and two nieces Isabelle and Priscilla. [10]
Baker lived most of her life in Chicago, and when her father died in 1927 she inherited a large inheritance which allowed her to remain single and live on her own, unlike many women at the time who lacked money of their own. [7]