Nationality United States Other names "Mamie" | Name Marion Anthon Spouse Stuyvesant Fish | |
 | ||
Born June 8, 1853 New York City, New York Died May 25, 1915, Glenclyffe, New York, United States | ||
Marion Graves Anthon "Mamie" Fish (June 8, 1853 – May 25, 1915) was an American socialite and self-styled "fun-maker" of the Gilded Age. She and her husband, Stuyvesant Fish, maintained stately homes in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.
Contents
Early life
"Mamie", as she was called, was born in Grymes Hill, Staten Island and was the daughter of Sarah Attwood Meert and Gen. William Henry Anthon (1827–1875), a successful lawyer and Staten Island assemblyman. Her paternal grandfather was John Anthon (1784–1863). Mamie was of Dutch, English, French and German ancestry. She grew up on Irving Place in Manhattan and only received a rudimentary education and, by her own admission, could barely read and write.
Society hostess
Mamie ruled as one of the so-called Triumvirate of American Gilded Age society, along with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Tessie Oelrichs. She became a notable leader of high society (in New York City at her townhouse at 25 East 78th Street, at her stately home Glenclyffe in New York State, and at her mansion Crossways in Newport, RI) by virtue of her quick wit and sharp tongue. Grandees attending her dinner parties would be greeted with the occasional insult "Make yourself perfectly at home, and believe me, there is no one who wishes you there more heartily than I do." One man was greeted with "Oh, how do you do! I had quite forgotten I asked you!"
In collusion with her antics, Harry Lehr often served as a co-planner of outrageous parties, such as the one given in honor of "Prince Del Drago of Corsica", who turned out to be a well-dressed monkey (given too much champagne, the monkey proceeded to climb the chandelier and throw light bulbs at the guests). At another of her parties, dancers holding peanuts would feed an elephant she rented as they danced by it.
Mrs. Fish's cattiness respected no rank, for when Theodore Roosevelt's wife sought to keep a frugal household, "Mamie" Fish was quoted as condescendingly saying of Mrs. Roosevelt "It is said [she] dresses on three hundred dollars a year, and she looks it."
Personal life
On June 1, 1876, she married Stuyvesant Fish (1851–1923), the director of the National Park Bank of New York City and president of the Illinois Central Railroad. He was the son of Hamilton Fish (1808–1893). Together, they had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood:
She died on May 25, 1915 and is buried near Glenclyffe at the Church of St. Philip-in-the-Highlands. Her Newport "summer cottage", Crossways, is now a condominium.