Margaret Abbott
His wife, Margaret Ives Abbott, was the daughter of the Chicago Tribune's book reviewer, Mary Ives Abbott, a newspaper woman and novelist who associated with the prominent families of the time in Chicago-the Potter Palmers, the Chatfield-Taylors, etc. She had a sort of literary salon dedicated to encouraging young Chicago writers, among whom was Dunne. Mary's husband had been a merchant in Calcutta before his death. She also had a son, Sprague. Mary Ives Abbott died in 1904.
Margaret Abbott was one of the first women golfers, having begun play in 1897 as a member of the prestigious Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois. She won the first Olympic gold medal for women's golf at the second Olympiad in Paris in 1900—thus becoming the first American woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal. That same summer, she also won the women's golf championship of France. Her mother, Mary Abbott, also played in the Olympics that summer, finishing in a tie for 7th place. Marda, as Margaret was known to her family, later said that the other women, "apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled for the day and turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts."
On December 10, 1902, Margaret Ives Abbott was married to Dunne at her mother's home in New York. She continued to play golf while she and Dunne were raising their four children, Finley Peter Dunne, Jr., screenwriter/director Philip Dunne, and twins Peggy and Leonard. She died in 1955.
Read more about this topic: Finley Peter Dunne
Famous quotes containing the word abbott:
“It’s all sorts of middle-aged white men in suits—forests of middle-aged men in dark suits. All slightly red-faced from eating and drinking too much.”
—Diane Abbott (b. 1953)