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.
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]
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 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]
^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
^Staff report (August 7, 1958). Millionaire Politician; Mrs. May Preston Davie. The New York Times
^Staff report (January 12, 1942). Army & Navy And Civilian Defense: Hen-yard Pagliaccio. Time
^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
^[1], The Reese Family Papers, Marist College Archive and Special Collections.
^Staff report (May 16, 1962). Mrs. Davie on Fair Agency. The New York Times
^Staff report (March 25, 1965). G.O.P. Honors Mrs. Davie, Retiring as a County Aide. The New York Times
^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