Mazie E. Clemens

Last updated
Mazie E. Clemens
MazieEClemens1920.tif
Mazie E. Clemens from a 1920 publication.
Born1890s
DiedMarch 4, 1952
New York
NationalityAmerican
Occupationjournalist
Known forWorld War I correspondent, worked for National Catholic War Council

Mazie E. Clemens (born 1890s, died March 4, 1952) was an American journalist who served as Special Representative of the National Catholic War Council during World War I. Walter Winchell counted her among the "Daredevil Angels of the Press" in his 1950 list of outstanding women journalists.

Contents

Early life

Mazie E. Clemens was the daughter of Richard Clemens and Ellen Clemens of New York. [1] [2] She was sometimes described as a relative of Mark Twain's. [3]

Mazie E. Clemens demonstrating her "peasant girl" costume, from a 1919 publication. MazieEClemens1919.jpg
Mazie E. Clemens demonstrating her "peasant girl" costume, from a 1919 publication.

Career

Clemens worked as a librarian and reporter at the New York World newspaper before World War I, and a war correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger . [4] She was Special Representative of the National Catholic War Council, working in Europe, during and after World War I. She interviewed Catholic leaders including Marechal Foch, Cardinal Amette, and Elisabeth of Bavaria, for the organization's published bulletin. [5] [6] [7] In late 1919 she disguised herself as an Italian peasant to carry supplies into Fiume, across a blockade. [8] [9] "I wore a blue cotton dress and a gray woolen shawl furnished by the family of an Italian naval officer with connections in New York City," she explained afterwards; "Within a few yards of the city I found myself a woman alone. The entire town, especially around the railroad station, seemed to be one mass of soldiers, but I managed to elude them." [10]

After the war, she covered scandals [11] and murder investigations, [12] [13] and testified in criminal trials. [14] Walter Winchell counted her among the "Daredevil Angels of the Press" in his 1950 list of outstanding women journalists. [15]

In later years, she worked as a Deputy Commissioner of Corrections for the State of New York, overseeing the prison commissary at Welfare Island. [16] She was also an auditor for the state's Bureau of Internal Revenue. [17] She was also "official biographer" of Patrick Joseph Hayes, an American cardinal and Archbishop of New York. [18]

Personal life

Mazie E. Clemens married stockbroker Louis Walter Caldwell in 1930. [1] [19] She was widowed when Caldwell died in 1937; [20] she died in 1952, in her fifties, in New York. [17] [21] Her will left a donation to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund, an oil painting to the American Irish Historical Society, and money for the care of her dogs, Brian Boru and Skippy, saying "I would rather they could live their lives out if possible and not be destroyed." [22] There is a folder of correspondence from Mazie Clemens in the National Catholic War Council papers, at the Catholic University of America. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Winchell</span> American gossip columnist (1897–1972)

Walter Winchell was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown Manhattan)</span> Catholic cathedral in New York City

St. Patrick's Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York as well as a parish church. The cathedral occupies a city block bounded by Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 50th Street, and 51st Street, directly across from Rockefeller Center. Designed by James Renwick Jr., it is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand Foch</span> French general and military theorist (1851–1929)

Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and member of the Académie Française. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War in 1918.

Shirley Ruth Englehorn was an American professional golfer. Nicknamed "Dimples", she won 11 tournaments during her LPGA Tour career, including one major, the 1970 LPGA Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Long (actor)</span> American actor

Walter Huntley Long was an American stage and film character actor who between 1909 and the late 1940s performed in nearly 200 screen productions.

Mordaunt Hall was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for The New York Times, working from October 1924 to September 1934.

The National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC) was the annual meeting of the American Catholic hierarchy and its standing secretariat; it was established in 1919 as the successor to the emergency organization, the National Catholic War Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lancaster Spalding</span> American Catholic bishop (1840–1916)

John Lancaster Spalding was an American Catholic author, poet, advocate for higher education, the first Bishop of Peoria from 1877 to 1908. He was also a co-founder of The Catholic University of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Our Lady of Grace (Encino)</span> Catholic church and elementary school in Los Angeles

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church & School is a Catholic church and elementary school located in Encino, Los Angeles, California, at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and White Oak. The parish operates the Our Lady of Grace Elementary School. Crespi Carmelite High School is also adjacent to the parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Terry</span> American actress and singer (1920–2016)

Ruth Mae Terry was an American singer and actress in film and television from the 1930s to the 1960s. She claimed her stage name came from Walter Winchell, who combined the names of two then-famous baseball players, Babe Ruth and Bill Terry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">May Buckley</span> American actress

May Buckley was an American actress on stage from childhood into the late 1930s, and in silent films in 1912-1913. Her private life was often in newspaper headlines, especially in 1901, when a man who claimed to be her husband shot at her in a hotel dining room, wounding one of her dining companions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazie Follette</span>

Mazie Follette was an American dancer, actress, vaudeville performer, and Florodora girl. She also wrote poetry, and was a witness in the murder trial of Harry Kendall Thaw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel Withee</span> American actress

Mabel Withee was an American actress on stage and in silent film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazie King</span> American dancer, singer and vaudeville performer

Mazie King was an American dancer, singer, and vaudeville performer.

Bennetta Bullock Washington was an American educator and community leader, founder and director of Job Corps for Women, a program of the United States Department of Labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilar-Morin</span>

Madame Pilar-Morin was a Spanish-French actress on stage, in vaudeville, and in silent films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Gurowitsch</span>

Sara Gurowitsch was a Russian Empire-born American cellist and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallie E. Queen</span> American writer and educator

Hallie Elvera Queen, later Hallie Queen Jackson, was an American writer, journalist, and educator. She taught English in Puerto Rico, and was on the faculty of Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazie O. Tyson</span> American geographer

Mazie Oylee Tyson was an American geographer who taught at historically-black colleges from the 1920s into the 1970s, including over twenty years at Tennessee State College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Laserson</span> Actress

Miriam Laserson was a Russian-born actress, poet and writer. In 1947 she was promoted in the United States as "Palestine's First Film Star".

References

  1. 1 2 "Miss Mazie Clemens Wed". The New York Times. October 10, 1930. p. 18 via ProQuest.
  2. "Obituary". The New York Times. May 29, 1921. p. 17 via ProQuest.
  3. Ladies of High Achievement" The Green Book Magazine (May 1920): 12.
  4. "Newspaper Woman Stricken with Appendicitis". Fourth Estate: 19. January 10, 1920.
  5. C. D. U. (January 1, 1920). "Marechal Foch -- Is He a Catholic?". The Fortnightly Review. 27: 9.
  6. Clemens, Mazie E. (October 1919). "Interview with the Queen of Belgium". National Catholic War Council Bulletin. 1: 15–16.
  7. Clemens, Mazie E. (January 1920). "An Interview with Cardinal Amette". The National Catholic War Council Bulletin. 1: 20–21.
  8. "Miss Mazie E. Clemens". The New York Times. December 21, 1919. p. 2. Retrieved 2019-05-08 via Library of Congress.
  9. "First American to Enter Fiume Port". Palladium-Item. November 15, 1919. p. 1. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  10. Clemens, Mazie (October 19, 1919). "Woman Braves Fiume Peril". Star Tribune. p. 58. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  11. Clemens, Mazie (May 14, 1931). "Millionaire, Shot by Wife, Engaged to Showgirl, 19". Daily News. p. 476. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  12. Kunstler, William Moses (1964). The Hall-Mills Murder Case: The Minister and the Choir Singer. Rutgers University Press. pp. 240–241. ISBN   9780813509129.
  13. Clemens, Mazie (March 6, 1929). "Edel Calls No Witnesses in Murder Trial". Press and Sun-Bulletin. p. 5. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Woman Reporter Called". Daily News. November 17, 1926. p. 46. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  15. Winchell, Walter (December 24, 1950). "Daredevil Angels of the Press". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 11. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Mazie Clemens Runs $300,000 Grocery Store". The Des Moines Register. April 10, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  17. 1 2 "Mazie Clemens". Daily News. March 5, 1952. p. 78. Retrieved May 7, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  18. Clemens, Mazie E. (September 10, 1938). "The Cardinal of Charities". Daily News. p. 222. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Mazie Clemens Marries Broker". Daily News. October 10, 1930. p. 192. Retrieved May 8, 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Louis Walter Caldwell". The New York Times. August 7, 1937. p. 15 via ProQuest.
  21. "Mazie Clemens Dies; Was Noted Reporter". The New York Times. March 5, 1952. p. 29 via ProQuest.
  22. "$1,500 to Cancer Fund". The New York Times. July 16, 1952. p. 27 via ProQuest.
  23. "National Catholic War Council Finding Aid - University Archives". archives.lib.cua.edu. Retrieved 2019-05-08.