Obituary

New York Times, Saturday, January 24, 1948.

Mrs. Laura Mae Corrigan, widow of James W. Corrigan, Cleveland steel company head, died on Thursday at Post Graduate Hospital here. Mrs. Corrigan was one of England's best known social leaders during the period after the first World War and in the recent war had won many decorations for her work in behalf of soldiers and refugees.

She arrived in this country from Paris on Christmas Eve to visit her sister, Mrs. David Armstrong-Taylor of San Francisco. The two sisters had been staying at the Plaza Hotel since then. Mrs. Corrigan became ill on Wednesday and was taken to the hospital.

FABULOUS SOCIETY STORY - The story of Laura Mae Corrigan was a fabulous one in the annals of international society. She was born in Wisconsin. Her father was said to have been an "odd jobs" man and she, herself, to have once been a waitress in Chicago. These stories, despite the lack of any stigma pertaining to them, caused her exclusion from Cleveland society after her marriage to Mr. Corrigan, who was president of the Corrigan-McKinney Steel Company and a son of the founder of the business.

Snubbed on Euclid Avenue, the Corrigans came to New York, but met the same treatment here. According to the society writiers of the period immediately after the first World War, Mrs. Corrigan vainly spent "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in attempts to get into Gotham's social swim.

Shortly after the war she and her husband went to London, where in the couse of time she met Mrs. George Keppel, famous as having been King Edward VII's favorite hostess. Mrs. Corrigan rented Mrs. Keppel's mansion on Grosvenor Street, which had been the scene of many a lavish party for the haute monde. She learned the secrets of sucess in entertaining royalty and was reputed to have hired Mrs. Keppel's coterie of butlers, footmen and other servants, whose drawing room manners were unmatched anywhere in the world.

MECCA FOR PRINCES, DUKES - Soon the Corrigan mansion was the mecca of princes, ambassadors ad dukes. By 1923, Mrs. Corrigan was virtually London's prime social arbiter. The only element lacking, strangely enough, was "the Knickerbocker crowd." No Astors, Vanderbilts or others bearing old New York - or Cleveland - names were ever invited. The climax came when the phenomenally wealthy Prince of India turned down a previous invitation to attend a party at the home of a leading American family of the "Knickerbocker" set in order to accept one at Mrs. Corrigan's.

When the Corrigans returned here, society columnists tried to make up to them by declaring in print that they "had not been deserted" by their friends here and had really just gone abroad to amuse themselves. But the breach with Cleveland society was never patched up. Euclid Avenue had become afraid of the Corrigans and Mrs. Corrigan no longer cared.

Mr. Corrigan died on Jan. 22, 1928, exactly twenty years before his wife. he was then 47 years old. Later Mrs. Corrigan went abroad again and once more one [?] in London society, although she had a clash with the Mountbattens and once committed the error of showing the door to an uninvited guest, who, she afterwards discovered was a member of the British royal household.

ORGANIZED "LA BIENVENUE" - Before the outbreak of the recent war, she went to France and immediately upon the commencement of hostilities organized a group of French and other Allied women into "La Bienvenue," a group dedicated to supplying comforts for the soldiers. Her outstanding work in this respect led her to be later decorated with the "Croix du Combattant" by the French Government - one of the very few women ever so decorated because the award is only given for work in the front lines.

After the Nazi victory of 1940 she went to Unoccupied France, where she specialized in work for refugees. She was afterwards decorated with the Croix de Guerre and made a member of the Legion of Honor for this work, in pursuit of which she liquidated much of her personal fortune, including her jewelry.

Eventually escaping through Portugal, she turned up in London in 1944, where she organized the "Wings Club," which became famous as a haven for Allied aviators. It was established in the former mansion of Lord Moyne, and the Duchess of Kent was chief patroness. The King's Medal was bestowed upon her by Britain for her work. Besides her sister, Mrs. Corrigan leaves a nephew, Duncan Armstrong-Taylor.