Lydie Marland
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Lydie Marland (April 20, 1900-July 5, 1987), American socialite, was born Lyde Miller Roberts in Flourtown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the second child to George Frederick Roberts and Margaret Reynolds (Collins) Roberts and granddaughter of George W. Roberts and Mary B. (Fine) Roberts and Samuel Cavin Collins, Sr. and Lydie "Eliza" (Miller) Collins. Lydie Miller Roberts' brother, George Roberts, was born about two and a half years earlier, on November 19, 1897, also in Flourtown, Pennsylvania.
Lydie, her preferred spelling of her name, and George's parents were not well off financially, so in 1912 they went to visit their mother's sister, Mary Virginia (Collins) Marland and her millionaire husband, E. W. Marland ,whose full name was Ernest Whitworth Marland, in Ponca City ,Kay County, Oklahoma, who were childless. In 1916, the Marlands adopted Lydie and George and they moved to Ponca City and moved in with the Marlands. She began her schooling in Ponca City but soon left to attend various boarding schools in the East, ending her schooling at Oaksmere School on Long Island, NY, a school founded by Winifred Edgerton Merrill, the first American woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics. The school was known for it high academic standards so it stands to reason that Lydie received a good education.
Following the completion of her formal education Lydie returned to Ponca City where she became known for the parties she attended, as well as her attachment to outdoor activities such as the fox hunts that E. W. Marland had instigated. At this time the Marlands were living at the Grand House on Grand Avenue in Ponca City, while Marland's mansion, the "Palace on the Prairie" was being built [1925 - 1928]. On June 6, 1926, Mary Virginia (Collins) Marland, E.W.'s wife died. Within two years, E.W. returned to Flourtown, Pennsylvania, and had Lydie's adoption of a dozen years earlier annulled. On July 14, 1928, E. W. and Lydie were married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After an extended honeymoon that took the couple across Canada, ending up in California, the Marlands returned to Ponca City.
The lifestyle that Marland, at one time considered one of the richest men in the world, had set up for them did not last long. By 1928 the Marland Oil Company, now Conoco, had been taken over by "the Wolves of Wall Street", primarily by J. P. Morgan, and so, by 1930, the Marlands had moved out of the mansion and set up in the studio and guest house.
Two years later, in 1932, E. W. ran successfully for the U.S. Congress from Oklahoma's 8th District and the couple moved to Washington, D. C. In 1934 they returned to Oklahoma, this time with E. W. being elected as governor and Lydie as his First Lady. Although his tenure [1935 - 1939] was politically successful, Marland took the part of his oath that stated "that I will not, knowingly, receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing, for the performance or nonperformance of any act or duty pertaining to my office, other than the compensation allowed by law;" seriously and came out of the governorship a financially broke man. In 1941 Lydie and E.W. moved into the chauffeur's quarters and the Palace of the Prairie was sold to the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of Mexico." Marland died several months later, leaving Lydie a widow at age 41. The Carmelite Fathers requested that the statue of Lydie that stood on the grounds be removed, Jo Davidson's work no doubt being a bit too worldly for the good fathers. So, doubtlessly feeling very depressed, Lydie paid a Ponca City man to destroy the statue and haul it away. Years later, after Lydie had died, the man, on his deathbed, related how the statue had been broken and described where he had buried the pieces. The statue was eventually discovered, dug up and restored. Today [2005] it stands next to the statue of her brother, George Roberts Marland, in the entrance hallway of the "Palace on the Prairie" that she and E.W. lived in for such a short time.
Meanwhile, following E. W.'s death Lydie continued living in the chauffeur's cottage for another dozen years, all the while becoming more and more of a private person. In 1953 she loaded what was left of in the way of worldly goods and drove away from Ponca City - without a driver's license. Her whereabouts for the next 22 years remain much of a mystery. Because she was a nationally known figure at that time, it would be reported in the newspapers of the day when she was discovered working as a maid in Independence, Missouri. Later she was rediscovered in a bread line in NYC. In 1967, she surfaced marching in an anti Vietnam War rally in Washington, D.C., after that she next appears in San Francisco.
In 1975, a Ponca City lawyer located Lydie in Washington, D.C., and financed her return to Ponca City. She moved back into the chauffeur's cottage, and spearheaded a movement to have Ponca City purchase the Mansion when it came up for sale again, and turn it into a museum, which is what happened. She remained living in the cottage until her death on July 5, 1987.
