Name Marjorie Torrey Role Illustrator | ||
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Books Our First Murder, Our Second Murder, The Merriweathers | ||
Marjorie Torrey Hood Chanslor (November 10, 1891 – September 1, 1964) was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. She also wrote two mystery novels for adults under the name Torrey Chanslor and published under the name Torrey Bevans. She was a runner-up for the annual American Library Association Caldecott Medal for children's picture book illustration, in both 1946 and 1947; Opal Wheeler wrote both books, Sing Mother Goose and Sing in Praise).
Chanslor was born in Brooklyn in 1891 to William A. Hood (1860–1918) and Caroline Lincoln Torrey (1861–1949).
In 1911, she married Thomas Murray Bevans (1879–1953) in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was previously married to Anna Fessenden Bradley (1900). They had a son, Tom Torre Bevans (1912–2003), who renewed copyright to several of her books in the 1970s. Her son was married to Margaret Van Doren Bevans, also a writer and illustrator.
She married secondly screenwriter Roy Edwin Chanslor (1899–1964), who wrote The Menace. In April 1935, she was fined $1,450 (equivalent to $25,000 in 2016) for throwing a cocktail at screenwriter Lon Young at a New Year's Eve party at the Cafe Trocadero nightclub in Los Angeles.
She died September 1, 1964 in Manhattan, age 72. There was no service, per her request.