MARRIED A NEGRO

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1939, Page 14

MARRIED A NEGRO

SPURNED BY HER FAMILY NEW YORK, June 15. Mrs. Laura Stedman Gould Dees, aged 55, former society woman who had been spurned by her friends since she married her negro chauffeur 11 months ago, was buried near the coloured section of Queen’s County, New York. She hanged herself in her modest apartment. Laura Stedman was a granddaughter of the millionaire banker, Edmupd Stedman, and her family were connected with, that of the former ifnited Slates liesident, Grover Cleveland. But she had been ignored by her blueblooded relatives because she married Milton Dees, her chauffeur and also an amateur poet. Police had thought that it was a routine case of suicide, but when they called in Dees to check up on the (iead woman’s antecedents, her wealthy background was revealed. She had been brought up in a luxury home in Lawrence Park, Bronx ville, and her first husband was the noted author and oculist, Dr. George Gould, with whom she collaborated on a life of her grandfather. Dees, -Aho is inconsolable, said that the marriage had been “one of minds.' Though earning a living as a chauffeur, he is a highly educated and cultured scholar. The couple recently completed a 20 000 miles motor tour before returning to live in the coloured section of Queen’s County. .