In 1903 she dropped out of the University of Nebraska to marry William H. Leavitt, a well-known Newport, Rhode Island, portrait painter. The couple met when he was painting a portrait of Bryan's father.[5] The couple had two children before divorcing in 1909.
Bryan married Reginald Owen, a British Army officer, in 1910,[6] and had two more children with him. Her second husband died in 1928. She spent three years in Oracabessa, Jamaica, where she oversaw the design and construction of her home, Golden Clouds. It is now operated as a luxury villa. Owen kept her home in Jamaica for more than three decades and spent many winters there, particularly in later years when she lived in Denmark and New York City. She detailed her time in Jamaica and experiences at Golden Clouds in a book, Caribbean Caravel.[7]
During World War I, Ruth Owen served as a war nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment in the Egypt–Palestine campaign, 1915–1918. She also served as a secretary for the American Women's War Relief Fund.[8][9]
Filmmaking career
Ruth Bryan Owen was a female pioneer in the film industry. She was a director, producer, and screenwriter for a feature film in 1922, called Once Upon a Time/Scheherazade, which is now considered lost.[10] In the spring of 1921, she started production of Once Upon a Time.[10] The film featured the Community Players of Coconut Grove, Florida, and was not related to a major studio at the time.[11]
The storyline was said to revolve around a shah dethroned by his jealous subordinate, who in turn uses his new power to torture young women who do not amuse him. Towards the end, the sadistic ruler runs into the most beautiful one of all, and the exiled shah returns just in time to save the young woman from his nemesis. According to the Moving Picture World, the costuming was ornate and elaborately done, the staging was complicated, and the mise-en-scène evoked an "atmosphere of experience in the Far East".[10] Owen had done extensive traveling, and visited countries such as India, Burma, Sri Lanka, China and Japan. Inspired by these places, she used them as the backdrop for her film.
Little would be known about the film except that Owen discussed it in correspondence with Carrie Dunlap, a friend from Illinois who served as campaign treasurer for Owen's father.[12] In her letters to Dunlap, Owen expresses great joy in her film, quoting, "I can scarcely believe the film is mine when I see it 'projected' on the wall above our fireplace."[13]
She thought of herself as a true pioneer in the industry. Her correspondence with Dunlap also revealed her intent to become one of the first female filmmakers in the U.S. Owen funded the film solely from her earnings on the public speaking circuit. In her letters, Owen discussed the support she gained from the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and their contribution to help secure a distribution deal with the Society for Visual Education.[10]
Political career
Bryan Owen takes the oath of office as U.S. envoy to Denmark, 1933
In 1928, after the death of her husband, Owen ran again. Having played a significant role when a hurricane hit Miami in 1927 and put efforts into promotions in newspapers, she defeated Sears by more than 14,000 votes[15] and began her term of office on March 4, 1929, while a widow and mother of four. Her election was contested on the grounds that she had lost her citizenship by marrying an alien. By the Cable Act in 1922, she could petition for her citizenship, which she did in 1925, less than the seven years required by the Constitution. She argued her case before the House Committee on Elections, saying that no American man had ever lost his citizenship by marriage. She said that she lost her citizenship because she was a woman, not because of her marital status. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in her favor.[16][17]
Owen ran for re-election in 1930, defeating Daytona Beach attorney Dewitt T. Deen by a wide margin in the June Democratic primary.[18] As the Republicans did not nominate a candidate to run in the 4th District, the pro-Prohibition Owen was heralded in the press as presumably having won re-election by virtue of her Democratic nomination.[18]
Owen's second term would prove to be her last, however, as in the 1932 Democratic primary, she was defeated by J. Mark Wilcox, who advocated the repeal of Prohibition.[19] Her congressional career thus came to an end on March 4, 1933.
First female U.S. ambassador
From 1933 to 1936, Owen served as United States Ambassador to Denmark, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[20][21] She would become the first woman to represent the United States in a foreign country as part of a diplomatic delegation.[22] While serving in her position in Denmark, one of her primary goals was to restore Danish-American relations, which had been damaged by the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act.[23]
On July 11, 1936, she married Børge Rohde, a Danish Captain of the King's Guard. The wedding took place at the estate of President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York.[23]Fannie Hurst, noted novelist and close friend of the bride, was matron of honor. Owen announced that she would retain her own name in her diplomatic and literary careers. The marriage gave her dual citizenship as a Dane—in addition to that of the United States—so she resigned her ambassadorial post in September.[24][25]
↑ Vickers, Sarah Pauline. The Life of Ruth Bryan Owen: Florida's First Congresswoman and America's First Woman Diplomat. Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, (1994)
↑ U. S. Congress. House. Arguments and Hearings before Elections Committee No. 1; Contested Election Case of William C. Lawson v. Ruth Bryan Owen, from the Fourth Congressional District of Florida. 71st Cong., 2nd sess., 1930. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930.
↑ U. S. Congress. House. Report No. 968. Committee on Elections No. 1. William C. Lawson-Ruth Bryan Owen Election Case. Report of the Hon. Carroll L. Beedy, of Maine, chairman. 71st Cong., 2nd sess., 1930. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930.
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