Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1901 — People and Events [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

People and Events

Blackburn'e "Bride to Be. The positive announcement of Senator Joseph C. S. Blackburn’s impending marriage to Mrs. Mary E. Blackburn, widow of his kinsman, Judge H. H. Blackburn of West Virginia, has aroused Washington society from its summer sleeta. This engagement was announced January 8 and publication met with vigorous protest from the prospective bride and groom. The wedding was originally set for an early date in March and was to have been

a sequence to the return of the redoubtable Kentuckian to the senate. For some private reasons the nuptials were postponed. Mrs. Mary E. Blackburn is a member of one of the prominent families of Washington. Mrs. Blackburn’s friends believe that her nuptials will be strictly private after the order of the famous Dewey-Hazen alliance, with no previous announcement or invitations to friends. Mrs. Blackburn will be the latest addition to the senatorial brides. Mrs. . Hansbrough held this distinction for three seasons until last winter, when Mrs. Sullivan, wife of the senator from Mississippi, usurped her place of honor. Mrs. Blackburn has been a widow for more than three years. Shortly after her husband’s death she was appointed to a clerkship in the quartermaster geenral’s office or the war department, which she held until last week. Although she has never been prominently identified with society she is a woman of fine presence and gracious manners and will undoubtedly add luster to the history of the Blackburn family in Washington. The late Mrs. J. C. S. Blackburn for many years shared with Mrs. Carlisle the distinction of being the most successful hostess of the blue grass state in official life. Her three beautiful daughters made their debut here and were stars in the social firmament

MRS. BLACKBURN.