Walter Miller and Virginia Clark

[Martin Williams]

http://www.rainfall.com/posters/newsservicephotos/94842.htm

Here's a photograph of Walter Miller Clark's first cousin (his mother's sister's daughter) who married the Hungarian Count Anton Sigray von Febre in 1910. The wedding was a 'top drawer' affair, attended by Thomas Cardeza and George and Eleanor Widener, besides swarms of other Society luminaries.

Unusually for a debutante, Harriot had been an active supporter of the fashionable Metropolitan Opera. 'The New York Times' of 12 November, 1907, noted that she was the youngest girl that season to have engaged a parterre box in her own name.

 

[Martin Williams]

http://www.1st100.com/part1/wclark.html

Brian has already flagged this link on another thread but, for the purpose of general comprehensiveness, it perhaps deserves a place here as well. The Clark family was one of the wealthiest and most influential in the western States around the turn of the century - a position only consolidated by their marital alliance to the Dalys, which Brian detailed in his post above. Included is a photograph of Walter Miller Clark's parents, J. Ross Clark and his wife Miriam, standing on the steps of their private railroad carriage, with Walter and Virginia's son, J. Ross Clark II. Given the very distinctive style of Mrs Clark's gown, I'd set the date of this snapshot to somewhere between 1912 and 1914 - exactly the time that the 'Titanic' was making her fateful voyage. Another link, attached below, supplies some more biographical information about Walter's father, together with a small picture:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Clark&GScty=17920&GRid=9364146&

J. Ross Clark's brother (Walter's uncle), Senator William A. Clark, was himself quite a character - and, upon his death at a ripe old age in 1925, was apparently one of the '50 richest Americans ever':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Andrews_Clark

After his move to New York, Senator Clark built himself a house on Fifth Avenue. I think the kindest word that can be used for this particular pile is...ummm...'bold':

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cprimm_manly427/2519246942/

At least one contemporary source I've come across suggests that Senator and Mrs Clark were at the pier on the evening of 18th April to meet the 'Carpathia' when she docked, carrying their now-widowed niece, Virginia. And it was their son, William A. Clark Jr, who afterwards escorted her via rail from Salt Lake City to her home in Los Angeles.

Like Eleanor Widener, with her library at Harvard, and Julia Cavendish, with her village hall in Suffolk, Walter's mother Miriam later gave some of her seemingly considerable wealth to propagate the memory of her lost loved one in bricks and mortar. In 1937, she donated the land and funds to build the Walter Miller Clark Memorial Community Church in Lakewood, California:

http://www.thelvcc.org/

 

[Brian Ahern]

Happy New Year, Martin!

Your posts are motivating me to finally finish writing up the summary of Virginia's life - as told by contemporary news accounts from her days as a Montana belle to her days as a much-married New York-Palm Beach-Pasadena society matron - that I probably started a year ago. Her life might win the prize for the most soap opera-esque of First Class ladies (though, of course, she's got stiff competition).

 

[Martin Williams]

Hi Brian

Naturally, I'll be thrilled to read anything you might care to contribute here about Walter and Virginia Clark. Although I am, by the sounds of it, ten paces behind you with my research, I've been following up a few leads of my own and eagerly anticipate your summary. I'm sure it will be a corker.

Myself, I've been using the holidays to write my own potted biography of James Clinch Smith, which I hope to get on-line in the next month or so.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2009.

Martin

 

[Martin Williams]

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScatid=128&GRid=10268&

Can't think how I've never come across this site before. As it includes the only photograph of Walter Miller Clark I've seen so far, it might be of some interest.

 

[Martin Williams]

http://www.hungarianhorse.com/hha_news_sep98.html

...and a very interesting article about the daughter of Walter's first cousin, Harriot Daly, and her activities in Hungary and the States during and after World War II.