Elizabeth Hulburd-Hine-Alderson ("Betty") Early Years (1917-1941)

Betty's 1935 Mary Institute Graduation Year Book Photo.

Betty (left) with sister Harriet in 1920

Betty (right) and Harriet

Betty was born at St. Louis Maternity Hospital (now Barns Hospital) in St. Louis, Missouri on August 29, 1917.

She had an older sister, Harriet ("Dede"), born a year earlier, and a much younger brother, Earl ("Bud"), born in 1928.  Her middle name, Seward, was a family name passed down for many generations on her mother's side of the family.  It derived from Betty's great-great grandfather, Israel Seward, a 1st cousin of William Henry Seward, President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State of "Sewards Folley" fame. 

Not a lot is known about her very early childhood.  On her recorded oral history tapes she indicates that the Hulburd family lived for a short time with her father's parents in or near St. Louis (likely the suburb of Ferguson) when she was about 6 months old and then lived for unknown periods of time as a young child on Cates Ave. (University City, MO), 721 Limit Ave. (University City), and 7629 Wydown, St. Louis.

Her father, Earl ("Dutch") is believed to have attended Washington University in St. Louis and possibly also took college courses in business at St. Louis University.  Sometime before 1920 he went to work as the Secretary of the Collier Estate, a trust left by a very wealthy St. Louis businessman from the 1800's.  Dutch apparently did well financially as during the second half of the 1920's the Hulburd's became a well-to-do and very prominent family in St. Louis social circles.  Dutch and his wife Hazel belonged to the best clubs and organizations and knew and socialized with the most elite residents of St. Louis.  The children grew up in a life of privilege and prestige and throughout the 1930's the Hulburds regularly made the society pages of the St. Louis newspapers.

Childhood home at 78 Vandeventer Place, St. Louis.   (1930's newspaper photo)

The Family Home

Around 1927, when Betty was about 10 years old, the Hulburd family moved into a small mansion at 78 Vandeventer Place in a very exclusive St. Louis neighborhood.  Betty described her childhood home in her 1995 taped oral history interview as having 16 rooms including a ballroom upstairs.  Built in the 1870's, it still had gas-lights on the walls from the days before electricity.  It had 6 fireplaces, 3 downstairs and 3 upstairs and a rifle shooting range in the basement.  The family employed 3 full-time live-in servants which included a cook, a maid, and a combination driver, gardener, and butler.  In the 1930's the family owned two cars at a time when most family's couldn't afford even one.  The Great Depression, which swept the U.S. in the 1930's, apparently didn't effect the Hulburd family.

Early Religious Upbringing

In later life Betty would become a member of the Episcopal Church however surviving records indicate that during her early years she was a member of the Kingshighway Presbyterian Church in St. Louis having been enrolled shortly after her birth and obtaining formal membership in 1929 at age 12.  She underwent "The Sacramental Rite of Confirmation" on April 2, 1933. 

Miscellaneous Childhood Activities and Events

Betty excelled at arts and crafts activities later in life but there is no record of, nor do I recall her ever mentioning, being involved in these sort of activities as a child.  Also, to the best of my knowledge she never learned to play a musical instrument though her father was evidently an accomplished armature ragtime pianist and her sister could play the piano quite well.  It is not known whether the Hulburd family had pets when Betty was a child.  If they did, I don't recall mother ever mentioning any.  According to her recorded oral history tapes and other records Betty attended summer camp in 1929 in Missouri (camp Sleepy Hollow, Hillsboro, MO) and in 1930 in North Carolina (camp Greystone).     Betty also spent parts of multiple summers visiting her childhood school friend Ahden Knight at the Knight family private vacation lodge compound on Lost Lake near Sayner, Wisconsin.    While growing up in St. Louis Betty learned to play the card game of Bridge which she would enjoy playing her entire life and would become quite good at.

Grade School and High School

May 1935 - Betty On Right

It is assumed that Betty began her education in the St. Louis public schools.  In September of 1927 she entered the 5th grade at Mary Institute, a well-to-do private girls school in St. Louis where her nickname would become "Hully" (short for Hulburd).  She would spend the next 8 years there till her graduation (with Honors) from 12th grade in June of 1935.  Here she would develop many strong friendships which would last her entire life.  Her copy of the 1935 Mary Institute year book ("The Chronicle") indicates that Betty partook in the sport of fencing and sang in the glee club.  It indicates that she enjoyed music and evidently had a large collection of phonograph records (which I don't recall ever seeing or hearing).  She wrote the class will and was on the Year Book board.  In addition, she was designated as the best dancer in the class and most likely to dance with Fred Astaire (a famous dancer of the day).   While attending Mary Institute Betty became well versed in all of the upper-class social graces of the day, skills which would serve her well and define her personality through out her life.  32 years after graduating Betty would act as class of 1935 co-alumnae secretary for the 1967 issue of the Mary Institute alumnae publication.  In this capacity she accumulated information and wrote about other members of her class.

College

May, 1935

In the fall of 1935 Betty enrolled in Finch College in New York City where her older sister Harriet had gone a year or two  before.  Finch was a nationally known 2 year "finishing school" for proper young ladies and I'm sure mother had a great time socially in NYC during the 1935/36 school year.  A surviving Finch grade report kept by Betty for the 1935/36 year shows that she majored in Dramatics and achieved 2 A's, 5 B's and 1 D in her various classes for the year.    I recall mother mentioning that she was not as good at dramatics as her older sister Harriet who was a year or two ahead of her at Finch and that Betty occasionally was teased because of it.  Her college career would be short lived however as she only attended college that one school year and thus never graduated.  Exactly why she never returned to Finch is not known.  The fact that the next year (1936/37) was a busy one for her socially at home in St. Louis could have been a reason for not immediately returning to Finch, however she likely could have easily re-enrolled for the 1937-1938 school year had she chosen to.  In the mid 1960's Betty would act a alumnae secretary for the Finch class of 1937 (the year she would have graduated had she continued her Finch education on schedule) and reported on the activities of former class mates for the 1964 Finch Alumnae Magazine.  (Finch would go out of business in about 1975 but the alumni association would remain active for many years.)  The earliest known surviving example of Betty's writing is a letter she wrote home from Finch.  Click the following link to view the letter:   

European Travel and Social Events

The period of about a year starting in the summer of 1936 must have been a very memorable and exciting one for Betty.  She would travel to Europe, be a Maid of Honor at St. Louis' annual high profile Veiled Prophet Ball, spend a number of months "coming out" to society as a St. Louis Debutante, attend the Yale Junior prom, and vacation in Bermuda.

July,1936.  Boarding the Normandie for Europe.

I had always been aware the mother had visited Europe and had been a society debutante but I never understood exactly what this was all about till I recently ran into (among her surviving possessions) two large and detailed scrap books she had prepared at the time.  These books contain an amazing quantity of photos, letters, newspaper articles, and other memorabilia.  One covers her European Trip and the other her Veiled Prophet Ball and Debutante activities.  Betty also kept a detailed diary of her daily activities while in Europe which has also survived. (Both the scrap books and the diary can be viewed by clicking on buttons farther down this page.)

Betty was originally scheduled to travel to Europe in the fall of 1935 but, for reasons I am not aware of, the trip was postponed and she attended Finch instead.  The trip was rescheduled for the summer of 1936 and on July 15th Betty, a Mary Institute classmate, and their travel escort, Madam Lincoln, sailed from New York City aboard the Normandie, a famous ocean liner of the time, for Havre, France.  (The Normandie would later sink in New York Harbor during the early days of World War II as a result of a non-war related fire.)  During this voyage Betty would meet and come to vaguely know Howard Johnson who in later years would turn a small ice-cream parlor into a national chain of restaurants and hotels known for their yellow roofs.

Betty (right) with sister Harriet at Betty's Debutante Party.

Mother and her traveling companions would visit France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and England before returning home in early September via Canada aboard the SS Alaunia.  She was only 18 years old at the start of the trip and turned 19 a few days before it ended.  According to dates and newspaper clipping in her scrap book, mother was in Munich, Germany within days of 1936 the Munich Olympics, an event used by Adolph Hitler to propagandize his vision of German racial supremacy.  Betty's European adventure was followed closely by the St. Louis newspaper society pages as evidenced by numerous clipping in her scrap book. 

Betty (far left) as Veiled Profit Ball Maid of Honor.

Upon her return from Europe Betty took on the social responsibilities of being a debutante and a Maid of Honor at the 1936 St. Louis Veiled Prophet Ball.  The Veiled Prophet Ball, held annually and founded in 1878 by a group of local prominent businessmen (including Betty's 2nd cousins twice removed, Alonzo Slayback and his brother Charles), was the high point of the St. Louis social season and it was considered a high honor to be selected as a Maid of Honor.  The event was held at the St. Louis Municipal Auditorium on October 7th, 1936 and newspaper clippings indicate that 9000 people attended in their dressiest attire for the evening of social festivities.  

Formal photo at her Oct. 28, 1936 Debutant Party. The 10"x13" original of this portrait always hung  in Betty's home for as long as I can remember.   It currently hangs in my den.

Shortly after the Veiled Profit Ball Betty kicked off her debutante season with a formal party at her Vandeventer Place home on October 28, 1936.  This would be followed by a series of other balls and parties given by the seasons other debutants extending into the spring of 1937.  This was all documented by saved clippings from the local  newspapers.  Being a socialite during this period was clearly a full-time job and I imagine that mother had a great time.

In addition to her very active St. Louis social life during this period Betty attended the Yale University Junior Prom in February of 1937 in New Haven Connecticut as the date of longtime St. Louis friend and beau Elihu Hyndman.  Immediately after the Prom Betty, along with her sister and mother, traveled to Bermuda for a vacation which, like everything else in the life of the Hulburd family in those days, was covered by the St. Louis newspapers.  A handwritten letter sent by Betty to her father from New York City immediately after the Prom and just before leaving for Bermuda describes the Prom in detail.      Photographs of Betty mailed to her by friend Howard Bird from Yale in February of 1938 suggest that she also attended an event there that year probably again as the date of Elihu Hyndman.  The envelope in which the 1938 photos were mailed was forwarded from her St. Louis home address to the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach Florida indicating that Betty spent at least some time there in 1938, likely vacationing.

Dated March 23, 1936.  Betty on left, Harriet on right.

This photo suggests that Betty and her sister visited Cuba during Finch spring break that year.

The primary mode of cross country transportation in the 1930's was by train which often involved sleeping overnight while in transit in what were then known as Pullman Cars.  Betty therefore usually rode the train on her frequent travels between St. Louis and New York City in the latter part of the 1930's.  I remember, however, her telling of once talking her father into incurring the additional expense to allow her to fly home from New York.  Commercial aviation was in its infancy and Betty told of flying in a Ford Tri-Motor, I believe the first successful commercial aircraft, from New York to Chicago sitting in one of their now famous wicker seats and landing regularly at small airports along the way.  This was a very adventurous and exciting experience for a young girl in those days.  (She then took the train from Chicago to St. Louis.)  I don't recall her ever saying in what year this took place but I expect it was while she was in college at Finch in 1935-1936.  Later in the 1930's other more advanced commercial aircraft had made the Ford Tri-Motor obsolete.

At the 1937 Yale Junior Prom with Elihu Hyndman.

Only a little is known about the specifics of what Betty did between mid 1937 and mid 1939.  She apparently continued to live at home in St. Louis and information found among her effects after her death indicates that she did volunteer work for the Red Cross and other organizations.     A resume she prepared in 1964 indicates that she worked for Famous Barr (a large St. Louis department store) in 1938 and 1939 in sales, modeling, and other capacities.  A "Separation Notice" from "Famous-Barr operated by the May Department Store Company" dated April 8th, 1939 was recently discovered among her papers.

In 1937 Betty applied for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and it was granted in February of 1938.  To become a member she had to document that she was a direct descendent of someone who had fought in the American Revolution.  Her qualifying ancestor was Col. John Seward who was also an ancestor of William H. Seward, Governor of New York, U.S. Senator, and President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State who became famous for purchasing Alaska ("Seward's Folly").    I've recently learned that Betty had another ancestor, Solomon David Slayback, Sr. (1753-1814), who served in the American Revolution and who has been referenced by Slayback descendents for membership in the DAR and SAR (Sons of the American Revolution).  Solomon Slayback was the father of Margaret Slayback who married Israel Seward, Betty's great great grandfather.  I don't think Betty was aware of this second connection to the American Revolution.

Betty's World Changes

For most of the 1930's Betty had lived a comfortable life of privilege and luxury.  This would suddenly change in late 1938 when her father was caught embezzling funds from his employer.  In early 1939 he plead guilty and was sentenced to imprisonment in the Missouri State Penitentiary for 10 years.  He ended up serving a little under 5 years.

Throughout my life I've always been aware that mother's father had spent some time in prison but I never really knew exactly why or when till recently.  The few times the subject came up with mother over the years she was generally vague about it, didn't say much, and left the impression that it wasn't that big a deal.  I recently obtained C. Earl Hulburd's court records along with newspaper articles relating to his embezzlement and it is apparent that mother knew a lot more than she ever let on, that she was very involved with the events at the time, and that it changed the world as she had known it.  While I can't say that mother ever lied to me about her father's imprisonment, she certainly didn't want to talk about it in any detail, perhaps so as to not have to re-live the experience and also so as to not expose her children to the misdeeds of a previous generation.

Her father had started embezzling funds from his employer about the time in the late 1920's when the family had moved into their Vandeventer Place home and had placed Betty and Harriet in private school.  It is now clear that the Hulburd family's lifestyle and social status were based almost entirely on embezzled money.  For 4 of the 5 days between Dec. 24th and Dec. 28th of 1938 the St. Louis Post Dispatch (the major newspaper in town in those days) ran major "above-the-fold" front page stories about C. Earl Hulburd's embezzlement, primarily I suspect because of the family's high profile social standing in the city.  Before going to prison in January of 1939 he transferred substantially all of the family's assets to his former employer leaving his wife and children with limited or no means of support.  The newspapers articles suggest that the family was devastated by the revelations and events.

Later in 1939 Betty would move to New York City along with her mother, sister, and brother.  I suspect the move was to get away from the shame associated with the imprisonment of her father and not because there was any particular reason to go to New York except that it was far from St. Louis and Betty and sister Harriet had college connections there.  The family's move to New York is described in a letter C. Earl Hulburd wrote to a business colleague from prison in September of 1939.    

An era in Betty's life had suddenly and tragically come to an end.

Life In New York City

As I grew up I recall hearing almost nothing regarding mother's life in New York City from the time of her move there in mid 1939 till the fall of 1941 when she met my father.  Most that I now know has come from bits and pieces I've discovered among her effects since her death.

Betty lived in apartments with her mother, sister, and brother (first at 140 E. 46th St. and after December of 1940 at 157 E. 46th St.).  She and her sister, Harriet, worked to support the family.  Her mother, Hazel, spent this period mostly in a state of denial about her husband and possibly in a partial state of depression perhaps caused by the yet un-diagnosed brain tumor that would take her life in 1944.  In 1940 Hazel divorced her imprisoned husband. Betty's brother, Bud, attended grade school in New York City and on September 6, 1941 her  sister Harriet (Dede) would marry.

1941 weekend at Howard Bird's home in Connecticut. (Betty seated on right)

On her audio history tapes Betty indicates she worked in the Executive Offices of Charles of the Ritz (a national cosmetics firm) for a time.  Her 1964 resume confirms that she in fact worked there during 1940 and 1941 in bookkeeping, payroll, and purchasing and that she left to get married.  Prior to this she had worked in 1939 and 1940 for B. Altman and Co. doing general office work and had been "transferred" to Charles of the Ritz.  Surviving letters from her imprisoned father indicated that in 1941 Betty was taking night classes in typing and shorthand which she quit after becoming engaged to my father that fall.  (In later years Betty would type most of her correspondence to others.  This is likely the period in which she learned this skill which was also possessed by her father and which she always encouraged me to learn.)

There is photographic evidence that Betty socialized regularly during this period with former Yale student's whom she had known since her Finch days, particularly good friend Howard Bird whom she visited at home in Connecticut and at his family's vacation home in Weehapauge, Rhode Island.

Finally, I recall that mother mentioned a couple of times over the years that she had once had the honor of christening a submarine (breaking a bottle of Champaign over the bow of a new ship).  I have uncovered no evidence of this but suspect that it may have occurred during this period and likely would have taken place in Groton, Connecticut where many submarines were built prior to and during World War II.

July 1940 At Weehapauge, RI	March 1940 in Connecticut with "Bill Bird" (Howard's brother?)	August 1941 at the Bird Residence in Connecticut