JACK JOHNSON'S WIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 107, 4 May 1912, Page 17

JACK JOHNSON'S WIFE.

•HIS ONE AND ONLY VENTURE. STORY OF MARRIAGE. The news has leaked out that at Pittsburg, in the presence of several witnesses. Alderman John A. f'ugassi had married Jack Johnson, the famous pugilist, in January, a year ago, to "Etta 11. Duryea. white." and that the Alderman then had neglected to make proper report of the marriage to to the authorities. Ou the top of this item of intelligence came prompt Jack's reply, in which he says he is "aggrieved." "This story's just one more attempt of my enemies to be ornery against mc," says Johnson, who is at present in Chicago. "I'm married to Mrs. Etta H. Dnryea, divorced wife of Clarence E. Duryea, of Hampstead, L.1., and I never had another wife. I did just what the Bible says Take unto yourself a wife." "iHow come Pittsburg authorities to make threats against prosecuting mc or anybody else, like dispatches say they threaten, when I got a regular marriage license there on January 8. 1911. and was married the same day to Mrs. Duryea under no fraud or false pretence? Mrs. Duryea had divorced her first husband for desertion, and I say right in the presence of my mother sitting here I never was married any other time. Detective Cole, Frank Sutton, proprietor of the Hotel Sutton, and Carrie Sutton, his sister, were the witnesses." PROPER rATERS FILED. The activity of Pittsburg's District Attorney in investigating the case as to why there was no proper return of the marriage license resulted in an assurance made that the proper papers would be filed immediately. Mrs. Jack Johnson was at Hamstead recently to attend tbe funeral of her father, David Terry, of Flatbush. She was a tall and very pretty girl, wlch black hair that was curly when she was married to Clarence Duryea about a dozen years ago. She was 17 years old then. Tou-nc Duryea at that time was a soloist in the Garden City Cathedral. Later he went into light opera, and his wife also got a minor position in the company. Two years after they had gone on the stage they separated, illness caused Duryea to go to the Adirondacks, while Mrs. Duryea continued on the stage. She got her separation from Duryea by charging desertion in Chicago. , Johnson 'ir some years was thought to be the husband of a vaudeville actress, whom he is said to have described as "threefourths negress." Also there were stories that he had married a woman in Australia and. again, that he had been married to a woman in Nevada some time previous to inp7. WEDDING kept a secret. Alderman Fugassi has now filed a return showing he performed the marriage service ■vhich united Jack Johnson to Etta ,11. Duryea in Hint city on January IS. 1011. ,er a year ago. The ceremony look place at -he ne::ro hotel run by Frank SutTon. A.?cori!in-: to the law. Fugassi should have n.acle h!s return within 'thirty days. Johnson in his affidavit when he (took out the license gave his age as 32, swore he had never been married, and gave this occupa-

tion as teacher of pnysjear culture. Etta showed tbe divorce decree granted her by the Cook county. Illinois. Court. Johnson, in talking over the lons-distance -wire from Chicago to Sutton, stated the trouble was all occasioned by Sig Hart, his former manager, trying to annoy him by making it appear that when he married Etta he committed bigamy.