The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, June 29, 1934, Page 9

i a eR SS Semicon Mt mee mer creer eee “Tey val TL : ~fUUHEAGOAEEAUEO CANOE AC HEE UU HUNAAA AAT - é BU ccatacaacacaacauccuncénesacaccnavntatacatt CULL ATU AAA Betty Offield, “richest girl in Chicago,” whe précedad the pear el iress in contracting an unexpected marriage. By Elizabeth Walker HEN the former Geraldine Swift, heiress daughter of Chicago's famed Packingtown family. bowed to society several years ago, the Social Registerites in attendance as- sumed as a matter of course that, when the time came, she would marry as she had made her debut—amidst plenty of costly fuss and + expensive fanfare. ~*Mitidens ‘of ‘her wealth’ and” prontinetice in- variably adventured altarward along tose- petaled aisles in clouds of tulle, attended by bevies of beauteous bridesmaids and dashing young ushers, while a church-full of bank pres- idents, utility magnates, society leaders and ex- But for once the brain trusters of the Mid- Swift book ending to what started out to be a stereo- typed » but in establish: ing a The fact that the marriage of the packing prince's daughter totaled less ~ five dollars. dl rT ; riitis itt sf | Hie] di ich; ret FE é | 5 fe rE i z if é + p Fa § ifs PLEEEE cher 2 ities rel itt f8e cfs £ if i it i F eft Fz ~ ef hart AUOU ATA MRERANMATTT Taare ynraa “that’s a pretty NAMA GWU PNOMMUAAEE aEDeaNendedanen ade se nsrsogagnatogrecotice cuattereaneisneerstarecaten Low-cost marriages have been numerous in Chicago's smart set recently, but Geraldine Swift got the big bridal bargain of 1934 when she married “Tommy” Taylor, with a window washer as the witness “Here's some folks who want to be mar- tied, Joe,” he an- nounced. The justice of the peace eyed the elop- ers carelessly, then let his gaze scan the sheet of paper which young Taylor hand- ed him. “Swift” — he i mused aloud— prominent name.” IHE winsome granddaughter of the shrewd Mas- sachusetts meat mer- chant, responsible for its prominence. smiled prettily, but said nothing. Then the justice asked where were their witnesses. “We haven't any,” the former football player an- swered, “But you've got to have at least one —.” Justice hesitated, ard, as he did, his eyes hap. pened upon Ben Markel, a window washer, hard at worl : : 4 The former Geraldine Swift and her husband, Albert T. Taylor, just 8 OMe of the siaag Mody marriage by a pills of the peace at Joliet—at Paki @ win- dows in his court- dow washer laid down his squeegee to act as witness. toom. “Ben! Put down your squeegee. T want you to come in here and be a witness at this wedding.” handed the justice the remaining dollar, asking Ben obeyed and, wiping his hands dry on the him if he could change it. Justice Klepec gave seat of his trousers and giving his visored cap him 50 cents in change, and held out a half- a roguish tilt, took his place beside the packing dollar to Ben, thus bringing up the total cos! magnate’s daughter. It was all over in thre» of one of the most fashionable weddings of Chi- minutes. cago’s current social season to $4. After the beaming bridegroom had kissed 1 Back in the bridegroom's little roadster, the bride, he asked the justi newlyweds hastened toward Chicago, intent up- “I'm giving you a price—$2.” ONNTNUDNNUUDETATAALIANG OM SUNN LAME eCaTUaA UTE on breaking their news, not only to his parents, the socially prominent Albert R. Taylors, for- ~How the Packing House Heiress Seta Record with Her 4»Dollar Wedding Jeanne Wingfield, another Chicago society light who surprised her friends by the in- formality of her marriage. ““be home for dinner’ because she was “hav- ing a date with Tommy Taylor,” the wealthy head of Swift and Company and his wife had not for an instant suspected -he true nature of her engagement. The eldest of their three daughters had been “having dates” with cligible young bachelors like Tommy Taylor ever since she had “finished” at Miss Nixon’s school in Florence and made her debut at an elabo- rate ball at the Blackstone Hotel. To them the youthful gridman, despite the fact that he was a Phi Beta Kappa and a Scroll and Key man as well as a “Y" wearer, was just another in a seemingly endless masculine Procession. He was—that is—until the afternoon of March 25th last when he braked his car before their palatial town house, and Jerry proudly presented him to tem as “my hus- band.” That the surprise her introduction occa- sioned was not unpleasant was revealed later that evening at the railroad depot where the elopers entrained for Arizona on a honey- moon. To a group of his kinsman, gathered to wave the newlyweds off, the packing house head was overheard remarking genially : “Well, I guess young people do things differently now than they did in the nineties.” While the former Jerry Swift's different kind-of-a-marriage will, undoubtedly, go down in the annals of Chicago's smart set as the best bridal bargain of 1934 she was by actual count the third rather than the first Gold Coast bride within recent months to eschew the ex- pense and excitement of a fashionable church wedding for a quick and quiet ceremony. And since she and Tommy Taylor embarked upon their thrilling pilgrimage. still a fourth Social Registerite maiden has joined the veil-less ranks of New Deal matrons. He first one was the piquant Betty Brown, 20-year-old daughter of the Charles Ed- one dollar bills, handed .wo of them to the jus erly of Milwaukec but now of St. Joseph, tice, and was preparing to repocket the thin! | Mo., but also to hers. when the latte: reminded him that there was » Although the young bride had left word for 50-cent witness fee. The former grid her her parents the evening before that she wouldn't ward Browns of Lake View avenue and Lake (Copyright, 1984, by EveryWeek Magazine) MUTA AL -oODDOR DOE EDOODNGDDNNLIED MMMM ote tstessgensegnas radeseas CUNO AA saa AAAI LAMSMEAG ANNU radoeaecatuecgtasaosssscuseatonatanseU GUO EM Forest, and a granddaughter of the late Gov- ernor William Deshler of Ohio. Young, poular, extremely pretty, a graduate of the exclusive Fermata Schoo! at Aiken, and a member of the Junior League, she entrained for Troy, N. Y., one noon last October, os- tensibly to pay a visit to her good friend, Mar- garet Cluett. So far as her family and friends knew she had no thoughts of becoming engaged im the immediate future, much less of getting married. But some four or five days later, she called her parents by long distance telephone from New York City, and informed them: “T've just been married!” A few moments before, she had given her heart and hand into the lifetime custody of » young New York broker, Allen C. Whitman, Jr., whom she had met the summer before at Bar Harbor. The second social favorite to pass up the thrill of promenading down the main aisle of a Gold Coast house of worship in a nimbus of old lace on the arm of her father was Betty Offield. “The richest girl in Chicago society” —as she is called, because she was left out- right one-tenth of the $40,000,000 estate of her grandfather. William Wrigley, Jr. the chewing gum and baseball magnate—was of on her honeymoon to Honolulu before word of her surprise marriage to Denis E. Sullivan, Je. young Chicago lawyer, had leaked out. san iil iat (fT HUTT IHAT the capricious little millionaires should have succeeded in keeping secret her intentions of becoming the bride of the name- sake of Judge Denis E. Sullivan of the Cook county circuit court was, in itself, an achieve- ment. For ever since she made her debut three years ago in a ‘airy-like forest of synthetic pine trees at a Christmas ball given for her by her doting grandfather, her affairs du coeur have been making newspaper copy. ‘While the unheralded wedding of the chew- ing gum heiress—like those of the erstwhile Jerry Swift and Betty Brown—created con- siderable stir in the Windy City's inner circles, what really agitated them was the spur-of-the- moment marriage of a comparative newcomes: Jeanne Wingfield, daughter of the famous Ne- vada mining king, George Wingfeld. former Miss Wingfield, who came to Chicago from San Francisco in 1932, shortly after her presentation at the Court of St. James, startled even herself when she kept a romantic engagement in New York's city hall the other day with Chauncey McKeever, a young busi- ess man from Edinburgh. Young McKeever came across to America after graduating from Oxford in 192€ eT a 4 ue