Mary Landon Baker (b. August 15,U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925 1901; died 1961) was a rich American socialite and heiress famous for her romantic life. Newspapers worldwide covered her love life with Allister McCormick, whom she repeatedly left at the altar in the early 1920s.
In 1926 she was briefly engaged to Bojidar Pouritch, who worked as a Yugoslav diplomat; a New York Times correspondent stated their engagement caused, "the greatest excitement since the European war".
Among those she rejected as possible husbands were also an English Lord, a rich Spaniard, and an Irish prince. She reportedly had received 65 marriage proposals by the time she died, but never married. The New York Times reported that the theater actor Barry Baxter died of a heart attack on the day that Baker broke up with him.
Baker was apparently enamoured for most of her life with the British politician and writer Henry "Chips" Channon who refers to her repeatedly in his published diaries.
Family Baker's parents were Chicago lawyer and financier Alfred L. Baker and Mary Corwith. She had an older sister, Isabelle,Crowell, Deborah, ", ancestry.com from the book Men of 1914. The name is spelled 'Isabelle' in this report. Retrieved 2017-02-09. whose married name in 1926 was Mrs. Robert M. Curtis"Alfred L. Baker, Financier, Ill at Lake Forest", Chicago Daily Tribune, September 30, 1926. Retrieved 2017-02-09. and in 1934, Mrs. Isabelle Baker Curtis Welch, and two nieces Isabelle and Priscilla."Robert M. Curtis Acts to Settle Alimony Dispute", Chicago Daily Tribune, November 24, 1934. The names are spelled 'Isabel' in this report. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
Baker lived most of her life in Chicago, and when her father died in 1927 she inherited a large inheritance which allowed her to remain single and live on her own, unlike many women at the time who lacked money of their own.
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