Mary Rockefeller
Introduction
Mary Todhunter Clark Rockefeller (June 17, 1907 – April 21, 1999) was the first wife of Nelson A. Rockefeller, the 49th Governor of New York. She served as the First Lady of New York from 1959 until the Rockefellers' divorce in March 1962. After their divorce, Nelson Rockefeller remained governor and would become the 41st Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford.
Early life
Known as Tod to her family, she was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia on June 17, 1907.She was the daughter of Elizabeth Williams (née Roberts) Clark and Percy Hamilton Clark, was an attorney and noted cricketer.Among her siblings was two brothers, John R. Clark and Dr. Thomas W. Clark.
Her maternal grandfather was George B. Roberts, a former president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Tod attended the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia and studied at the Sorbonne in France, but didn't graduate, instead returning to Philadelphia where she made her debut and became active in the Junior League.
Career
In 1932, she began volunteering at the Bellevue School of Nursing in Manhattan, which was administered with Bellevue Hospital.She served on the schools' board for many years, including a stint as the board president.
Personal life
On June 23, 1930, she married Nelson Rockefeller, a grandson of John D. Rockefeller, at St. Asaph's Episcopal Church in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, with a reception at the home of her parents, a few days after Nelson had graduated from Dartmouth College. They had five children:
- Rodman Clark Rockefeller (1932–2000)
- Ann Rockefeller Roberts, a founder and president of the Fund of the Four Directions.
- Steven Clark Rockefeller (b. 1936), a former dean of Middlebury College.
- Michael Clark Rockefeller (1938–1961), a twin who disappeared during an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern Netherlands New Guinea.
- Mary Rockefeller Callard (b. 1938), a twin.
Rockefeller divorced her husband on March 16, 1962 in Reno, Nevada on grounds of extreme mental cruelty. A year later, "Happy" Murphy became the governor's second wife.
She died at her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1999 at the age of 91.