Macy, Mrs. Maude M. Little 1845-1926

MACY, LITTLE, STODDARD

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 4/25/2011 at 20:53:57

MRS. MAUDE LITTLE MACY

Friends who assembled Monday afternoon at Herrick Chapel to attend the funeral of Mrs. Maude Little Macy, widow of Professor Jesse Macy, heard a service marked with a dignity and sincerity which made it beautiful.

Mrs. Macy reached the end of life's pilgrimage last Saturday at the home of her daughter, Katharine, Mrs. W.A. Noyes, in Urbana, Ill., where she had made her home for several years. She was aged 80 years, 8 months and 25 days. Always frail, she had been failing for the past few months and the news of her death brought no surprise but much sorrow to the many Grinnell friends of the family.

The services Monday afternoon were made up of music, suitable in content and ably rendered, and addresses and prayers which breathed the rich spirit of friendship and affection. As the company assembled Professor H.W. Matlack played on the organ the slow movement from the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony and "Peace," a composition of the beloved Professor Scheve. Rev. E.M. Vittum then read a short sketch of Mrs. Macy's life and Mrs. Smiley followed with a piano solo, the Slow Movement from Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique.

Following a prayer by Dr. Vittum, Dean John S. Nollen, speaking for the college, brought a feeling tribute of affection. He spoke of the great debt which the college owes to Professor Macy and also to Mrs. Macy, who helped him, often worked with him, and all his life long was his inspiration and companion. He spoke as one who had been a younger member of the faculty, of the Macy home as a place where "one could feel at home."

MAUDE LITTLE MACY

Maude M. Little was born in Wethersfield (now Kewanee), Ill., April 22, 1845. Her parents, Henry Gilman Little and Fidelia Maria Stoddard, had come from New England to make their home in the new state in 1836. With her four sisters, she shared the life of Wethersfield during her girlhood, although her frail health made of her childhood a less active and care-free time than is normal. However, her health so improved that she was able to attend Oberlin College when her father's family removed thither. She graduated there in the class of 1866.

In 1867 the family came to Grinnell where some members have been in residence ever since. Much of the social life of the town in those early days centered in the Little home where the gentle presence of Mrs. Little made all welcome. Mr. Little radiated good cheer and the five daughters, each in her own way, contributed to the entertainment of the guests.

From this home, the second daughter, Maude, was married July 25, 1872, to Jesse Macy, then the young principal of the Academy. The new home was established in the simplest manner but was always open to friends and students and became from the first a center of influence toward all that makes for the higher life.

As years passed by, six children, four boys and two girls were born in the home. All but one of them, the second daughter and fifth child, died in infancy. The sad bereavements of these first fifteen years deeply affected the lives of both parents. Although they were not embittered, they were softened and chastened by suffering (unreadable) more quick to sympathize with the sorrows of others.

Mrs. Macy was ever a lover of good literature and of beautiful pictures and buildings. She made so thorough a study of Gothic architecture during the year she and her husband and little daughter spent in England in '87-'88 that she brought back a vital interest in it to many friends and students at home. The 300 photographs of paintings and famous buildings which she collected, formed the basis for talks to clubs and college literary societies and were the material over which many students pored as they sat around the bare dining table and talked with their hostess of all that art has meant to the world.

As the wife of a teacher and student of politics, Mrs. Macy shared in a large measure the work of her husband. She helped in the composition of each book as it as discussed, planned and written; her hand helped to shape it from first draft to final proof reading.

When Professor Macy was threatened with a serious breakdown in 1895, Mrs. Macy took the lead and bore the family off to Europe for a second year of rest and, as her husband's strength was restored, of work and study. Again, after Professor Macy's retirement in 1912, a third year was spent in Europe. From each of these experiences she brought back rich treasure for her friends; her home became gradually filled with mementos of varied signficance to her and to others.

After Professor Macy's death in 1919, Mrs. Macy no longer had the strength to maintain her Grinnell home and was persuaded to go to Urbana, Ill., and live with her daughter who had married there. In her new environment she continued, even in her semi-invalidism, to exert an unusual influence. Many new friends bear witness to the deep (unreadable) which even the ebb tide of such a strong life had made upon them. There, surrounded by the loving care of her children and her niece, Miss Myrta Lyman, and soothed by the happy prattle of her two grandsons, her end came peacefully on January 16, 1926.

Such a life can not be ended, for it goes on in a changed form; she has become united with her companion of the long years and surely she continues to be a light to those who surround her.

Her eldest sister, Mrs. Louise L. Viets, of Long Beach, Calif., her daughter, Katharine Macy Noyes, of Urbana, Ill., and two grandsons Richard Macy Noyes and Henry Pierre Noyes, survive her.