In 1959, Marjorie received a letter from an acquaintance, Dr. Rufus Benjamin Robins, who she knew through her work with the American Medical Association on the fight to defeat compulsory, government-sponsored, universal health care. In this letter, Dr. Robins opened up about some personal problems he was having, particularly concerning his wife Margaret's mental illness and institutionalization, his mother's death in a car accident for which he was responsible, and the recent death of one of his two adopted daughters. In later correspondence, Marjorie refers to this letter as the "Barney House" letter, written September 18, 1959. Marjorie responded on September 24, 1959 with her usual overwhelming enthusiasm, and thus began a prolific correspondence (at least on her part; his responses were often terse and sometimes mono-syllabic). In 1960, after William Shearon had died, Marjorie met Dr. Robins at a medical conference and they began a passionate physical affair. He lived in Camden, Arkansas, and she lived in Silver Springs, Maryland, so they only saw each other in person occasionally, but she wrote him almost every day for 5 years, keeping carbon copies in her files. Her letters include paens to her love for him, her lust for him, their work on issues of medicine and politics, her financial woes, her lovely house and garden, her dinners out, her friends, and her views on various social issues. The most salacious of these letters are not reproduced here, but are housed at the University of Oregon, Eugene, along with her professional papers.
These are the letters where we find out most about her childhood, her time with Edna Baker, her love for Amadeus Grabau (and her regrets for not going with him to China), her troubles dealing with her husband's illness, and many other aspects of her later life. As with the Barnum Brown letters, each letter is described briefly, followed by a link to the transcript of the letter itself. They are in chronological order.
The letters cease abruptly in 1964, when she finds out that -- after the death of his wife Margaret -- he has married another one of his mistresses, Edna Gann, even though Marjorie had begged him to marry her if that ever became possible. Dr. Robins died in 1970.
These are the letters where we find out most about her childhood, her time with Edna Baker, her love for Amadeus Grabau (and her regrets for not going with him to China), her troubles dealing with her husband's illness, and many other aspects of her later life. As with the Barnum Brown letters, each letter is described briefly, followed by a link to the transcript of the letter itself. They are in chronological order.
The letters cease abruptly in 1964, when she finds out that -- after the death of his wife Margaret -- he has married another one of his mistresses, Edna Gann, even though Marjorie had begged him to marry her if that ever became possible. Dr. Robins died in 1970.
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Newspaper ad published across the US in the spring of 1961 Cincinnati Enquirer, 3/6/1949
Letters to Dr. Rufus B. Robins
September 24-25, 1959 -- In which Marjorie consoles him on not getting to be president of AMA, talks about Thomas Huxley’s philosophy about whether the good in life outweighs the bad, her garden, her childhood, how her plans for life – no career and six children – did not happen. In this first letter, she makes a vague reference to Dr. Amadeus Grabau and how she broke her engagement to him because he lied to her. She ends discussing her philosophy of life, how she copes with not having had children. Her letters to Dr. Rboins begin on 9/24/1959, before she began her affair with him and before her husband had died.
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October 17, 1959 -- In which Marjorie talks about not having many friends, in part because Bill doesn't like to entertain; talks more about her childhood, mentions her hike and the drunk Broadway actress she adopted (Edna Baker), talks about remodelling her house in DC.
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October 24, 1959 -- In which Marjorie mentions her lack of close friends who really know her, talks about her odd childhood where her parents didn't talk to each other, how her mother became an alcoholic, how Marjorie had no social life and knew nothing about boys and didn't date; she provides a little more information about how gloriously happy she was with Dr. Grabau (her "scientist"), talks about how disappointed she has been in her marriage to B. (William Shearon), with a veiled reference to the lack of sexual relations; mentions buying land in Florida to retire to, describes what a typical day is like for her, talks about "Dr. R." (Rufus Robins) in the third person, as distinct from her friend Bob.
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November 5, 1959 -- In which Marjorie talks about various stories she might Bob, how she met Edna Baker, her attempts to help Edna get sober, Edna's shopping trip, meeting Eugene Walter.
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November 9, 1959 -- In which Marjorie talks about losing her pay at the museum, so she and Edna briefly go to work for Huyler’s candy store; Marjorie collapses from lack of food and Edna nurses her back to health; Edna returns to Broadway and Marjorie to the museum with a new-found appreciation for nice clothes.
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An article that includes photos of Edna Baker.
| ednabakerimages.pdf |
November 11, 1959 -- In which Marjorie frets that Dr. Bob's secretary might open his mail and read her letters [never dreaming they'd be posted on a thing called the Internet almost 50 years after she had died]; a description of her fellow students and how she did research on fossils from Cuba and Abyssinia that resulted in Barnum Brown (a friend) reaping the financial benefit, because she only cared about "pure research."
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November 14, 1959 -- In which Marjorie explains the beginning of her hike, her outfit (knickerbocker suit), her short hair, her gun, then skips right to flood relief work for the Salvation Army in Beardstown, Illinois; helping old woman with baby chicks.
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November 14, 1959 -- In another letter also dated November 14, 1959, of which only parts are excerpted here, she tells Dr. Bob more about her childhood and marriage, and admits that her husband has started to physically abuse her.
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November 16, 1959 -- A short letter in which she explains a bit more about turning down the post in Peking, and how much she regrets not moving to China with Dr. Grabau.
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November 22, 1959 -- Thanksgiving day, in which she tells Dr. Bob about her work with the Opera Comique, and relates the story of Jerry the cat stealing the turkey leg from the next-door neighbors, while she and B. lived on borrowed money, $2.50 a week.
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NOTE: There were only a few letters from the early months of 1960s, and most were the usual descriptions of her work, her financial worries, her garden, and her husband's declining health. William Shearon died on August 19, 1960. By the end of 1960, Marjorie has declared her love (and lust) for Dr. Robins, and has started including rather salacious discussions of their sexual encounters. For many reasons, I decided not to transcribe those parts of the letters and post them online, but suffice it to say that she named his penis "Perky" and sometimes directs her correspondence directly to Perky; she buys a papa-san chair so she can sit on a stool and perform oral sex on Dr. Robins while he reclines in the chair; she buys special 'percale' sheets for them to use when he comes to visit her; she describes having her first orgasm with him. Remember, she is 70 years old by 1960, but has been in a sexless marriage for more than 30 years! Such a remarkable women. The link below is to a Word document that includes William Shearon's obituary, and excerpts of several letters Marjorie wrote to Dr. Bob in 1960 and in January of 1961. She has begun to sign her letters "Hedone." Sometime before the January 15, 1961 letter, Dr. Bob has told Marjorie that he has another long-time lover, named Edna. This is the woman he will go on to marry in 1964, after his wife dies, breaking Marjorie's heart. In the January 15 letter, Marjorie tells him all about her affair with Dr. Grabau (to show that she is not "naive" about sex) and writes about her feelings on finding out that she is not his only lover. She reevaluates her role in his life.
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April 4, 1962 -- Note: Most of the letters from 1961 and early 1962 were full of risqué details about their sexual encounters, as well as the standard topics of her work, her finances, her garden, etc. In this letter from 1962, she talks about how little she knows about the seedier, seamier side of sex, prompted by her reading of a novel based on an older married woman having sex with a young man – which shocked and appalled her. She claims in this letter never to have consumated sexual relations with Dr. Grabau during their 10 year affair, but I find this very difficult to believe. They certainly "had sex".
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April 22, 1962 -- In which Marjorie describes finding several old scrapbooks belonging to her parents, discovering that she had a Confederate grandfather, and a family Bible showing that her middle name was Anne.
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December 28, 1962 -- In which Marjorie talks about having dinner at "Argentum" (The Silver Fox, pictured above). The restaurant was located at 5324 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Friendship Heights. This jazzy nightclub was established by James Speros (1893-1985), a Greek immigrant, in 1945 and lasted until the 1970s. It served steakhouse fare. For many years after her husband died, Marjorie ate dinner at the Silver Fox most nights of the week and became good friends with the owners, the musicians, and some of the kitchen staff. She writes again of Dr. Grabau and what a glorious life she might have had if she hadn't broken off with him, but instead had joined him in China. She end by describing how the Russians are looking for oil in Cuba.
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January 6, 1963 -- In which Marjorie tells Dr. Bob about finding two old letters from Dr. Grabau that he had written her in 1923, trying to convince her to join him in Peking. She rues her foolish decision not to go with him, lamenting her marriage to B. She writes about how hard she works and how lonely she is and how she finds solace in writing to him.
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NOTE: In a single page (p. 3) of a longer letter written on January 12, 1963 to Sophie Gibling Schindler in Los Angeles, Marjorie rails against welfare, Negroes, Eastern Europeans, and anyone who would ever accept charity, claiming that any type of government help is "degrading, demoralizing, destructive of family life, destructive of personal initiative, and a heavy drain on self-respecting individuals who provide for themselves and their families and shouldn’t be required to provide for the lazy, the stupid, the chiselers, and that whole group of individuals that shouldn’t have been born." I have chosen to include only this brief quote from the letter here. In the next letter (below), Marjorie is writing to Dr. Bob and explains how she knows Sophie, who was a famous person in her own right. For more information about Pauline/Sophie, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Gibling_Schindler and https://socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2010/07/pauline-gibling-schindler-vagabond.html
January 19, 1963 -- In which Marjorie explains how she came to know (Pauline) Sophie Gibling Schindler as a child, how Sophie came to visit her after more than 40 years, what fun they had talking about their childhoods. And then Marjorie goes over, once again, how much she loved Dr. Grabau and how unsatisfying her marriage to B. was, and how important her friendship with Dr. Bob is.
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November 25, 1964 -- NOTE: Dr. Robins, with whom Marjorie had been having a torrid affair since 1960, was in dire straits in 1964. His wife had died, finally. He had closed his medical practice in Camden, Arkansas, and was a serious alcoholic. He was desperately trying to find a part-time job. Eventually, he landed on his feet with a job in Chicago, and abruptly married his long-time mistress, Edna. He gave Marjorie no inkling that he was going to do this, and simply mentioned it casually in a letter to her on October 31. Less than a month later, she wrote a long letter to another doctor, someone much younger than she, explaining what had happened between her and Dr. X (referring to Rufus Robins). She describes in detail what a terrible person he was, amoral, with no integrity, yet she still proclaims her love for him. This letter (below) gives great insight into her state of mind at this point in her life.
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October 3, 1965 -- A handwritten letter from Marjorie to Dr. Bob written from the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, where they were both attending a medical convention. It was one year from the date of his marriage to his second wife, Edna. Marjorie says he has broken her heart, and that she has had very bad news from her physician about her health.
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March 25, 1970 -- In which Dr. Thomas Parker, of Greenville, South Carolina, writes to Marjorie to send her a Check for $3000 as a loan, to be repaid after her death, from her estate, in order for her to be able to keep her house at 8801 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, Maryland. He had apparently loaned her money before, but will not commit to loaning her more in the future.
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February 22, 1974 -- In which Marjorie writes to Dr. Kemp, responding to her request that she send her research files to him. She ended up sending all her professional papers to the University of Oregon, Eugene, which describes the collection this way: "Shearon, Marjorie O'Connell (1890-1974). Papers. 1917-1973. 7.5 ft. Marjorie O'Connell Shearon and her husband published an analytical legislative weekly from 1947 to 1966, opposing the nationalization of medicine. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, and some subject, and source files. (Coll. 131)."
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NOTE: More information about Dr. Rufus B. Robins can be found in the section titled "Other information about Rufus B. Robins."