Coonley, Queene Ferry

Queene Ferry Coonley (born Addie Elizabeth Ferry, 1874-1958) was a philanthropist, progressive educator, and patron of architecture who commissioned works from noted American architects Frank Lloyd Wright and William E. Drummond. Queene was also treasurer of the National Women’s Party; a trustee of Vassar College; vice president of the Progressive Education Association; member of the board of visitors of the Zion Research Library in Brookline, MA; and vice-president of board of the Madiera School in Washington DC.

Born in Detroit to garden seed magnate Dexter Ferry and his wife Addie, Queene graduated from Vassar College in 1896, and briefly pursued a career as a Kindergarten teacher until her marriage to Avery Coonley in 1901. The couple settled in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, home to the Coonley family and their business, the Chicago Malleable Iron Company. They had one child, Elizabeth Coonley, born in 1902.

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