Herminie Templeton Kavanagh

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Herminie T. Kavanagh (December 1859,[1] Aldershot, Hampshire, England — 30 October 1933, Chicago, Illinois, USA) was an Irish-American writer, most known for her short stories.

She was born Herminie McGibney, the daughter of Major George McGibney of Longford, Ireland. She became Herminie Templeton after her first marriage to John Templeton, and Herminie Templeton Kavanagh after her second marriage. Her second husband, Marcus Kavanagh (1859—1937), was a Cook County judge in Chicago, Illinois from 1898 to 1935.

Accounts differ on how she and the judge met, and where and when they married. In July 1908, the Chicago Tribune announced that they would be married at his parent's church in Des Moines, Iowa, but that the judge was "reticent as to the details."[2] Another article in the Tribune, several weeks later, said that Mrs. Templeton had been abandoned by her first husband in Chicago circa 1893. In the course of the clerical work in the city recorder's office by which she supported herself,[3] she met Kavanagh, and they were to be married at the church in County Waterford, Ireland where his parents had been married. "It is said there has been a silent understanding and a wait of over ten years" until news of Templeton's death in 1907, the article explained.[4] But the following day, the Tribune reported that they were married in Dublin, Ireland on August 19, 1908, by a monsignor from Des Moines, Iowa.[5]

But according to her 1933 obituary in the same newspaper, they met in Ireland in 1907 while the judge was touring Europe and she was gathering material for a book, and they married on August 19, 1908, at his parent's church in Des Moines, Iowa.[6] Judge Kavanagh's listing in Who Was Who in America (1943) said that they were married on August 19, 1905.[7]

Her best known work, Darby O'Gill and the Good People (ISBN 0-9666701-0-8), was first published as a series of stories under the name Herminie Templeton in McClure's magazine in 1901—1902, before being published as a book in the U.S.A in 1903. A second edition, published a year before her death, was under the name Herminie T. Kavanagh.

The Good People in the title refers to the fairies in Irish mythology. The English translation of daoine maithe is good people.

Her second published book, Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O'Gill Tales (ISBN 0-8369-4018-0), was published in 1926. In 1959, Disney released a film based on these two books, called Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

She also wrote two plays, The Color Sergeant (1903), and Swift-Wing of the Cherokee (1903).

Judge and Mrs. Kavanagh lived in Chicago and Ocean Grove, New Jersey. She died of a heart ailment, and was buried in New York, her former home.

[edit] References

  1. ^ U.S. Census, June 1, 1900. State of Illinois, County of Cook, City of Chicago, enumeration district 46, page 8A, family 106.
  2. ^ "Bachelor Jurist and Bride-to-Be," Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1908, p. 4.
  3. ^ "Chicago Woman Writing Irish Fairy Tales," Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1902, p. 16.
  4. ^ "Local Jurist Weds in Erin; Sequel of Chicago Romance," Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1908, p. 13.
  5. ^ "Judge Kavanagh Weds Author," Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1908, p. 7.
  6. ^ "Mrs. Kavanagh, Wife of Judge, Dies; Ill a Week," Chicago Tribune, October 31, 1933, p. 22.
  7. ^ Who Was Who in America, Volume I. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1943.

[edit] Further reading

  • American Women Playwrights, 1900-1930. A checklist. Compiled by Frances Diodato Bzowski. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. A checklist, 1700-1974. Volume 1. By R. Reginald. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979.

[edit] External links

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