Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie

Davie was born in 1895. Davie descended from a Tammany Hall founder.Staff report (April 29, 1952). MRS. DAVIE STILL FOR TAFT; She Also Says She'll Not Resign Despite Osterman Demand. The New York Times 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.{{cite news |title=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. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/02/24/108223480.pdf |accessdate=26 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=24 February 1896}} Her mother inherited her father's entire estate.{{cite news |title=Adolph Ladenburg's Will Filed. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/03/22/105744193.pdf |accessdate=26 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=22 March 1896}}

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.{{cite book |last1=May |first1=Gregory |title=Jefferson's Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt |date=2018 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781621577645 |page=630 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V342DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT630 |accessdate=7 November 2018 |language=en}} 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.

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

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.{{cite book|last1=Heard|first1=Alexander|title=Speaking of the University: Two Decades at Vanderbilt|date=1995|publisher=Vanderbilt University Press|location=Nashville, Tennessee|isbn=9780826512642|oclc=832668221|page=77|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKzMO4wFQ5cC&pg=PA60&dq=John+Bell+Keeble#q=John%20Bell%20Keeble}}

A onetime leader of the Landon Volunteers,Staff report (August 7, 1958). Millionaire Politician; Mrs. May Preston Davie. The New York Times she was vice president of the American Women's Voluntary Services, Inc.Staff report (January 12, 1942). Army & Navy And Civilian Defense: Hen-yard Pagliaccio. Time 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.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 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.[http://library.marist.edu/archives/reesePapers/reesePapers.xml], The Reese Family Papers, Marist College Archive and Special Collections. 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.Staff report (May 16, 1962). Mrs. Davie on Fair Agency. The New York TimesStaff report (March 25, 1965). G.O.P. Honors Mrs. Davie, Retiring as a County Aide. The New York Times

Davie made "a handsome gift" to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee while Harvie Branscomb was chancellor. 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. Davie was also a director of the Pioneer Fund.{{cite web|title=Eugenie Ladenburg|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ggb2005011255/|website=Library of Congress|accessdate=February 20, 2018}}

Davie was the second wife of lawyer Preston Davie.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 Her husband died in 1967, but she continued to go by Mrs. Preston Davie in formal situations.{{cite news |title=PRESTON DAVIE, LAWYER, 86, DEAD; Colonel on General Staff in World War I Held D.S.M. Graduate of Harvard Law |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/05/22/82159895.pdf |accessdate=26 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=22 May 1967}} She was informally known as May Davie, the name under which her New York Times obituary appeared.{{cite news |title=MAY DAVIE DEAD A CIVIC LEADER Descendant of a Tammany Founder Active in G.O.P. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1975/09/20/80058395.pdf |accessdate=26 September 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=20 September 1975}} 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.Blanche Wiesen Cook (1993). Eleanor Roosevelt. Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-009460-1}}

Davie died on September 19, 1975.{{cite news|title=Mrs Preston Davie Dies; Active In Politics|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/106895885/?terms=%22may%2BDavie%22|accessdate=February 20, 2018|work=The Indianapolis Star|date=September 20, 1975|page=7|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=registration }}

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{{commons category|Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121130130929/http://www.pioneerfund.org/Founders.html Pioneer Fund Founders and Former Directors]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928110936/http://www.alexanderstreet6.com//orhi/orhi.detail.interviews.asp?id=2255 Reminiscences of Eugenie Mary Davie]

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Category:1895 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:Activists from New York City

Category:New York (state) Republicans

Category:Pioneer Fund members