Myers family.

Richard Edwin Myers was born in Chicago on December 25, 1888. After graduation from the University of Chicago in 1911, he considered becoming a pianist and songwriter, but his first job was in the shipping department of the American Radiator Company in St. Paul. In 1917, however, he moved to New York City to pursue a theatrical career. These plans were interrupted by World War I, when Myers joined the U. S. Army and served in the American Expeditionary Force in France.

Upon demobilization, he returned to Chicago, where in 1920 he married his college sweetheart, Alice Lee Herrick. From 1921-28 Myers was advertising manager for the American Express Company in Paris. For the next four years he remained in Paris as an associate editor of the Ladies Home Journal, but returned to New York City in 1932 and was hired as a sales representative for M. Lehmann Inc., a wine and liquor retailer. During World War II he served in the Office of Strategic Services in London and after the war became a director of M. Lehmann, Inc.

Well known in New York and Paris social circles as a fine amateur musician, the former student of Nadia Boulanger composed the piano music for Archibald MacLeish's "Alien" and some music for Philip Barry's play "Without Love." In 1949 Richard E. Myers received the Cross of the French Legion of Honor for encouraging the performance of French music in the United States and for his work with American aid to France. He served on the board of directors of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. He was also a connoisseur of French wines, associate editor of Gourmet, and a regular contributor to Town & Country .

Richard E. Myers and Alice Herrick Myers had three children: Frances Margaret ("Fanny") born in 1921, Richard Herrick ("Dicky") in 1923, and Alice Lee ("Boo" or "Lee") in 1929. After a long illness, Myers died on August 8, 1958.

Alice Lee Herrick was born in Chicago on August 27, 1890. After the death of her mother in 1898, Alice and sister Frances lived with their grandmother, Mrs. Anthony French Merrill, in Camden, Maine. She majored in English at the University of Chicago, where she met her future husband, and after graduation worked in Chicago. In 1918 she volunteered for service in the American Red Cross and worked in France and Germany in its Bureau of Canteens.

After marriage the couple moved to Paris, where she directed the bilingual education of their children and managed a dress shop that featured embroidery work by Russian emigrées. In 1933 she wrote, from Paris, a fashion column for the Chicago Daily News . The talent, however, for which Alice Lee was best known, particularly during her Paris years, was her skill at entertaining. The Myers's home attracted scores of American and French writers, playwrights, singers, producers, critics, musicians, and diplomats, many of whom became close personal friends. Alice Lee remained in Paris for two years after her husband began working for M. Lehmann, Inc., but thereafter New York City became their permanent home.

The children finished their education in New York City and Connecticut. During World War II, Fanny served with the Office of War Information in London and Paris. Dicky enlisted in the Royal Air Force but was killed on a training flight in Canada on November 28, 1943. Alice Lee nursed her husband during his long illness in the 1950s and after his death remained devoted to her family and friends until her death on June 5, 1986.

William Josiah Herrick (-1917) m. Irene Waldron (-1898) Frances ("Fanny") Herrick Alice Lee Herrick (1890-1986) m. 1920 Richard Edwin Myers (1888- 1958) Frances Margaret Myers (1921-) m. 1946 Francis ("Hank") Brennan Christopher Herrick Brennan (1950-) m. Ellen Richard ("Dicky") Lee Brennan Richard Herrick Myers (1923-1943) Alice Lee Myers (1929-) m. 1953 Philip W. Wrenn* Richard ("Dickon") Seward Wrenn** (1958-) Laura Wrenn** (1959-)

* divorced, 1967

** adopted children

From the guide to the Myers family papers, 1908-1986 (inclusive), (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)