Mildred Elizabeth Frisby Doherty, daughter of William Sherman and Adeline Frances Hardy Frisby. She was blonde, beautiful, and highly intelligent. It was said that Mildred spoke in sentences at the age of eight months, sitting in her highchair and calling, "I want my Oaties." She graduated from Senn High School in Chicago with the highest grades, and was the only one of her immediate family to go so far in school.
When Mildred was in her teens she won a beauty contest in Chicago. After winning the beauty contest Mildred soon became a extra for several movies. But too intelligent to remain relying on her looks, Mildred soon deserted the movie business for something more appealing to her intelligence and imagination. Through her father, she got a job as a reporter on a Chicago newspaper, breaking in at first as a "picture snatcher." In those days the use of newspaper photographers was extremely limited. A "picture snatcher" would accompany a reporter to the home where there was to be an interview with the mother, say of a murdered girl, or wife of some man who was suspected of some high crime. While the reporter engaged the attention of the interviewee, the "picture snatcher" usually found a photograph of the subject displayed on a piano, mantle or table, and surreptitiously lifted same, hiding it in a coat pocket or purse. Mildred once caused her city editor to come close to a heart attack and plunged the entire staff into premature mourning. Airplanes were a novelty then and when a test flight was to be made just outside the city, Mildred was assigned to cover it by accompanying the pilot. Shortly after the plane took off, the phone rang on the city editor's desk. The plane had crashed and there were no survivors. Later, the phone rang again. It was Mildred. Something had delayed her and she had missed the flight.
While working for the Chicago Tribune she wrote under the pseudonym of "Mildred Spain." It was while she was working on the newspaper that Mildred met her future husband, Eddie Doherty, who was working on the re-write desk at the time. The Doherty family, as Catholics, never really considered that Mildred and Eddie were married as she refused to have a priest perform the ceremony. But married they were, and became the parents of a child, christened John James and known in the family as Jackie or Jackie Jim. He contracted polio as a toddler and was left with a limp for life. During his career Eddie went to Hollywood where he covered news of the film colony and Mildred wrote a Hollywood gossip column for the Hearst newspapers. From there the couple went to New York where Eddie wrote for a New York paper, covering among much else, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and trial.
When Eddie and Mildred had gone back to California and while there she went walking one day in a Santa Monica canyon. On a trail there she fell down a small cliff and apparently was strangled in the fork of a bush. It was a big story in the Chicago newspapers because of their former connections there and his prominence as a writer. For the longest time her father, William Sherman Frisby, believed that Mildred, highly nervous and sensitive, jumped from that cliff deliberately in her grief at the loss of her sister. She was dead when a search party found her. Mildred was shipped back to Chicago after her death.
"Memories recorded by Mildred's niece, Phyllis Cochrane, and given to me by her daughter, Linda."
When Mildred was in her teens she won a beauty contest in Chicago. After winning the beauty contest Mildred soon became a extra for several movies. But too intelligent to remain relying on her looks, Mildred soon deserted the movie business for something more appealing to her intelligence and imagination. Through her father, she got a job as a reporter on a Chicago newspaper, breaking in at first as a "picture snatcher." In those days the use of newspaper photographers was extremely limited. A "picture snatcher" would accompany a reporter to the home where there was to be an interview with the mother, say of a murdered girl, or wife of some man who was suspected of some high crime. While the reporter engaged the attention of the interviewee, the "picture snatcher" usually found a photograph of the subject displayed on a piano, mantle or table, and surreptitiously lifted same, hiding it in a coat pocket or purse. Mildred once caused her city editor to come close to a heart attack and plunged the entire staff into premature mourning. Airplanes were a novelty then and when a test flight was to be made just outside the city, Mildred was assigned to cover it by accompanying the pilot. Shortly after the plane took off, the phone rang on the city editor's desk. The plane had crashed and there were no survivors. Later, the phone rang again. It was Mildred. Something had delayed her and she had missed the flight.
While working for the Chicago Tribune she wrote under the pseudonym of "Mildred Spain." It was while she was working on the newspaper that Mildred met her future husband, Eddie Doherty, who was working on the re-write desk at the time. The Doherty family, as Catholics, never really considered that Mildred and Eddie were married as she refused to have a priest perform the ceremony. But married they were, and became the parents of a child, christened John James and known in the family as Jackie or Jackie Jim. He contracted polio as a toddler and was left with a limp for life. During his career Eddie went to Hollywood where he covered news of the film colony and Mildred wrote a Hollywood gossip column for the Hearst newspapers. From there the couple went to New York where Eddie wrote for a New York paper, covering among much else, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and trial.
When Eddie and Mildred had gone back to California and while there she went walking one day in a Santa Monica canyon. On a trail there she fell down a small cliff and apparently was strangled in the fork of a bush. It was a big story in the Chicago newspapers because of their former connections there and his prominence as a writer. For the longest time her father, William Sherman Frisby, believed that Mildred, highly nervous and sensitive, jumped from that cliff deliberately in her grief at the loss of her sister. She was dead when a search party found her. Mildred was shipped back to Chicago after her death.
"Memories recorded by Mildred's niece, Phyllis Cochrane, and given to me by her daughter, Linda."
Mildred Elizabeth Frisby Doherty, daughter of William Sherman and Adeline Frances Hardy Frisby. She was blonde, beautiful, and highly intelligent. It was said that Mildred spoke in sentences at the age of eight months, sitting in her highchair and calling, "I want my Oaties." She graduated from Senn High School in Chicago with the highest grades, and was the only one of her immediate family to go so far in school.
When Mildred was in her teens she won a beauty contest in Chicago. After winning the beauty contest Mildred soon became a extra for several movies. But too intelligent to remain relying on her looks, Mildred soon deserted the movie business for something more appealing to her intelligence and imagination. Through her father, she got a job as a reporter on a Chicago newspaper, breaking in at first as a "picture snatcher." In those days the use of newspaper photographers was extremely limited. A "picture snatcher" would accompany a reporter to the home where there was to be an interview with the mother, say of a murdered girl, or wife of some man who was suspected of some high crime. While the reporter engaged the attention of the interviewee, the "picture snatcher" usually found a photograph of the subject displayed on a piano, mantle or table, and surreptitiously lifted same, hiding it in a coat pocket or purse. Mildred once caused her city editor to come close to a heart attack and plunged the entire staff into premature mourning. Airplanes were a novelty then and when a test flight was to be made just outside the city, Mildred was assigned to cover it by accompanying the pilot. Shortly after the plane took off, the phone rang on the city editor's desk. The plane had crashed and there were no survivors. Later, the phone rang again. It was Mildred. Something had delayed her and she had missed the flight.
While working for the Chicago Tribune she wrote under the pseudonym of "Mildred Spain." It was while she was working on the newspaper that Mildred met her future husband, Eddie Doherty, who was working on the re-write desk at the time. The Doherty family, as Catholics, never really considered that Mildred and Eddie were married as she refused to have a priest perform the ceremony. But married they were, and became the parents of a child, christened John James and known in the family as Jackie or Jackie Jim. He contracted polio as a toddler and was left with a limp for life. During his career Eddie went to Hollywood where he covered news of the film colony and Mildred wrote a Hollywood gossip column for the Hearst newspapers. From there the couple went to New York where Eddie wrote for a New York paper, covering among much else, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and trial.
When Eddie and Mildred had gone back to California and while there she went walking one day in a Santa Monica canyon. On a trail there she fell down a small cliff and apparently was strangled in the fork of a bush. It was a big story in the Chicago newspapers because of their former connections there and his prominence as a writer. For the longest time her father, William Sherman Frisby, believed that Mildred, highly nervous and sensitive, jumped from that cliff deliberately in her grief at the loss of her sister. She was dead when a search party found her. Mildred was shipped back to Chicago after her death.
"Memories recorded by Mildred's niece, Phyllis Cochrane, and given to me by her daughter, Linda."
When Mildred was in her teens she won a beauty contest in Chicago. After winning the beauty contest Mildred soon became a extra for several movies. But too intelligent to remain relying on her looks, Mildred soon deserted the movie business for something more appealing to her intelligence and imagination. Through her father, she got a job as a reporter on a Chicago newspaper, breaking in at first as a "picture snatcher." In those days the use of newspaper photographers was extremely limited. A "picture snatcher" would accompany a reporter to the home where there was to be an interview with the mother, say of a murdered girl, or wife of some man who was suspected of some high crime. While the reporter engaged the attention of the interviewee, the "picture snatcher" usually found a photograph of the subject displayed on a piano, mantle or table, and surreptitiously lifted same, hiding it in a coat pocket or purse. Mildred once caused her city editor to come close to a heart attack and plunged the entire staff into premature mourning. Airplanes were a novelty then and when a test flight was to be made just outside the city, Mildred was assigned to cover it by accompanying the pilot. Shortly after the plane took off, the phone rang on the city editor's desk. The plane had crashed and there were no survivors. Later, the phone rang again. It was Mildred. Something had delayed her and she had missed the flight.
While working for the Chicago Tribune she wrote under the pseudonym of "Mildred Spain." It was while she was working on the newspaper that Mildred met her future husband, Eddie Doherty, who was working on the re-write desk at the time. The Doherty family, as Catholics, never really considered that Mildred and Eddie were married as she refused to have a priest perform the ceremony. But married they were, and became the parents of a child, christened John James and known in the family as Jackie or Jackie Jim. He contracted polio as a toddler and was left with a limp for life. During his career Eddie went to Hollywood where he covered news of the film colony and Mildred wrote a Hollywood gossip column for the Hearst newspapers. From there the couple went to New York where Eddie wrote for a New York paper, covering among much else, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and trial.
When Eddie and Mildred had gone back to California and while there she went walking one day in a Santa Monica canyon. On a trail there she fell down a small cliff and apparently was strangled in the fork of a bush. It was a big story in the Chicago newspapers because of their former connections there and his prominence as a writer. For the longest time her father, William Sherman Frisby, believed that Mildred, highly nervous and sensitive, jumped from that cliff deliberately in her grief at the loss of her sister. She was dead when a search party found her. Mildred was shipped back to Chicago after her death.
"Memories recorded by Mildred's niece, Phyllis Cochrane, and given to me by her daughter, Linda."
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