Marion Bartlett Thurber

Marion Bartlett Thurber
Born(1885-02-22)February 22, 1885
Detroit, Michigan
Died2 November 1973(1973-11-02) (aged 88)
St. Clair Shores, Michigan
Other namesMarion 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]

  1. ^ a b "Death Notices - Denby". Detroit Free Press. November 4, 1973. p. 47. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  2. ^ Biographical Catalogue of the Xi Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1858-1897. Pub. for the Chapter. 1897. p. 44. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  3. ^ "Presidential Children – the Cleveland Kids". World History. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  4. ^ "Mrs Edwin Denby and Her Children". The Spur. XXVII (10): 1. May 15, 1921.
  5. ^ "PRIVATE SECRETARY NAMED.; HENRY T. THURBER OF DETROIT CALLED BY MR. CLEVELAND". The New York Times. 2020-09-08. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  6. ^ "Mrs. Edwin Denby". The Brainerd Daily Dispatch. Brainerd MN. April 4, 1921. p. 1. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  7. ^ Anonymous (2011-03-16). Boudoir mirrors of Washington. hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t1vd6xc7q. Retrieved 2022-05-12 – via HathiTrust.
  8. ^ "In the Social World". Washington Herald. May 24, 1911. p. 5. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  9. ^ "Legislators". Legislator Details, Edwin Denby. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  10. ^ a b Peak, Mayme Ober (March 20, 1921). "Uncle Sam's New Cabinet Hostesses". The Sunday Oregonian. pp. Magazine Section, Page 2. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  11. ^ "Helping Their Husbands to Great Office". Ladies Home Journal: 127. September 1921. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  12. ^ "The Mystery of the Name Shenandoah". Harbormysterymuseum. 2021-01-19. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  13. ^ "NH 98220 Mrs. Edwin Denby". NHHC. 1923-10-10. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  14. ^ Hunt, Evelyn (May 18, 1921). "Washington Society" (PDF). Washington Herald. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  15. ^ Baxter, Betty (February 19, 1922). "Social Calendars in Nation's Capitol Crowded by Lent". Buffalo Courier. p. 48. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  16. ^ "Mrs. Coolidge heads UDC Ball Patronesses". The Sunday Star. Washington D. C. November 6, 1921. p. 55. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  17. ^ Women's City Club of Detroit (1931). Magazine of the Women's City Club. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  18. ^ "Monuments & Memorials. Mrs. Edwin Denby at ceremony. "Denby Memorial" at Grand Circus Park". Wayne State University Digital Collections. 1933-10-22. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  19. ^ University of Michigan; University of Michigan. President (1941). The President's Report to the Board of Regents for the Academic Year ... Financial Statement for the Fiscal Year. University bulletin. UM Libraries. p. 336. Retrieved 2022-05-12.