Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie

Eugenie Mary "May" Ladenburg Davie (January 31, 1895 – September 19, 1975) was a noted Republican activist in New York City and a director of the controversial Pioneer Fund at the end of her life.

May Davie
Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie.
Born
Eugenie Mary Ladenburg

(1895-01-31)January 31, 1895
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 19, 1975(1975-09-19) (aged 80)
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationPolitical activist
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
​
​
(died 1967)​
Parent(s)Adolph Ladenburg
Emily Stevens
RelativesEmil Ladenburg (grandfather)

Early life

Davie was born in 1895. Davie descended from a Tammany Hall founder.[1] She was the daughter of the former Emily Louise Stevens and Frankfurt-born Adolph Ladenburg, who co-founded Ladenburg Thalmann in 1876 with Ernst Thalmann. Her father died a year after her birth when he was lost overboard from a steamer.[2] Her mother inherited her father's entire estate.[3]

Her mother, the daughter of Alexander Henry Stevens (brother of Byam K. Stevens) and Mary Alleyne (née Otis) Stevens (granddaughter of U.S. Senator Harrison Gray Otis), was from a prominent New York City family descended from Major General Ebenezer Stevens, an officer in the American Revolution, and Albert Gallatin, the 4th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France.[4] Her paternal grandparents were Eugénie Adèle (née Halphen) Ladenburg (who was from a respected Parisian family related to the Paris Rothschilds) and Emil Ladenburg, a prominent banker who was born in Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden.

Political activism

Davie was a long-time political activist She once angered pilot Amelia Earhart by injecting political commentary into a speech introduction.[5]

Davie was on the Republican National Finance Committee, a regent of the National Library of Medicine, a trustee at Adelphi College and Long Island University. She was also the chairwoman of the Robert A. Taft Institute of Government.[6]

A onetime leader of the Landon Volunteers,[7] she was vice president of the American Women's Voluntary Services, Inc.[8] She butted heads with Fiorello La Guardia during World War II after he told William Fellowes Morgan, Jr. to dismiss her as an unpaid assistant.[9] She became an active member of the Republican Party and was the head of the Woman’s Auxiliary during Wendell Willkie’s campaign to unseat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.[10] La Guardia's tenure marked the end of the Tammany power in New York, and Davie's political influence gradually faded over the ensuing decades.[11][12]

Davie made "a handsome gift" to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee while Harvie Branscomb was chancellor.[6] When G. Alexander Heard became chancellor in 1963, they "immediately became fast friends" and they attended presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's speech in Madison Square Garden on October 26, 1964.[6] Davie was also a director of the Pioneer Fund.[13]

Personal life and death

Davie was the second wife of lawyer Preston Davie.[14] Her husband died in 1967, but she continued to go by Mrs. Preston Davie in formal situations.[15] She was informally known as May Davie, the name under which her New York Times obituary appeared.[16] Her 1917 affair with Bernard Baruch was of great interest to Alice Roosevelt Longworth who monitored the affair "in the name of patriotism," in the words of historian Blanche Wiesen Cook.[17]

Davie died on September 19, 1975.[18]

References
  1. Staff report (April 29, 1952). MRS. DAVIE STILL FOR TAFT; She Also Says She'll Not Resign Despite Osterman Demand. The New York Times
  2. "BANKER BROWNED AT SEA; Adolf Ladenburg Disappeared Mysteriously from the Niagara. HAD BEEN ON A TRIP FOR HEALTH Boarded the Steamer at Nassau Last Tuesday to Return to This City. LEFT HIS STATEROOM AT NIGHT Seasick and Suffering Pain from His Ailment -- May Have Taken Morphine" (PDF). The New York Times. 24 February 1896. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  3. "Adolph Ladenburg's Will Filed" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 March 1896. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  4. May, Gregory (2018). Jefferson's Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt. Simon and Schuster. p. 630. ISBN 9781621577645. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  5. Staff report (December 24, 1935). MISS EARHART IRKED BY SPEECH AT DINNER; Says Mrs. Preston Davie Injected Political Argument in Talk Introducing Her. The New York Times
  6. Heard, Alexander (1995). Speaking of the University: Two Decades at Vanderbilt. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780826512642. OCLC 832668221.
  7. Staff report (August 7, 1958). Millionaire Politician; Mrs. May Preston Davie. The New York Times
  8. Staff report (January 12, 1942). Army & Navy And Civilian Defense: Hen-yard Pagliaccio. Time
  9. Staff report (December 29, 1941). DUAL JOB CRITICISM OF MAYOR RENEWED; Mrs. Davie, Figure in Markets Row, Deplores La Guardia's Inability to See Aides. The New York Times
  10. , The Reese Family Papers, Marist College Archive and Special Collections.
  11. Staff report (May 16, 1962). Mrs. Davie on Fair Agency. The New York Times
  12. Staff report (March 25, 1965). G.O.P. Honors Mrs. Davie, Retiring as a County Aide. The New York Times
  13. "Eugenie Ladenburg". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  14. Staff report (May 6, 1930). EUGENIE LADENBURG TO WED ON MAY 31; Her Marriage to Preston Davie to Take Place at Home of Joseph S. Stevens, Jericho, L.I. PLANS ARE INCOMPLETE Fiancee, a Member of Colony Club, Is Only Child of the Late Adolf Ladenburg, Banker. The New York Times
  15. "PRESTON DAVIE, LAWYER, 86, DEAD; Colonel on General Staff in World War I Held D.S.M. Graduate of Harvard Law" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 May 1967. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  16. "MAY DAVIE DEAD A CIVIC LEADER Descendant of a Tammany Founder Active in G.O.P." (PDF). The New York Times. 20 September 1975. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
  17. Blanche Wiesen Cook (1993). Eleanor Roosevelt. Penguin, ISBN 0-14-009460-1
  18. "Mrs Preston Davie Dies; Active In Politics". The Indianapolis Star. September 20, 1975. p. 7. Retrieved February 20, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
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