Izetta Jewel, 1883-1978

Izetta Jewel was born Izetta Jewel Kenney in Hackettstown, New Jersey in 1883 to Elizabeth Henrietta (Denno) Kenney and Cornelius C. Kenney. Her mother was a suffragist and painter, for a short time offering art classes. Her father was a trained photographer who spent little time with the family, traveling throughout the United States and Mexico in an attempt to make his fortune until his accidental death in 1906 when he was hit by a train. Izetta Jewel had one sister, Hazel May Kenney, and a half-sister and half-brother, Bertha Church and Everett Church Jr., who were the product of her mother's previous marriage to Everett L. Church. Having been a young child when her biological parents divorced and her biological father being unknown to her, Bertha assumed the surname Kenney. It is unclear whether she was ever officially adopted by her step-father or whether she was informed of her true descent. Everett L. Church Jr. died as a young man.

As a child, Izetta attended private schools: Pamlico in Pompton, New Jersey, and East Greenwich Academy in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, until she began her training at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She made her first stage appearance in the play Tess in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1900. She continued her stage work, traveling around the country making notable performances in New York, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon, and joining various stock companies, among them the Castle Theater Stock Company in Boston, Massachusetts, until she arrived in Washington, D. C., and met and married William G. Brown Jr., a wealthy West Virginia congressman, in 1914. Following their marriage, the couple settled at Brown's estate in Kingswood, West Virginia. The couple had one child, Izetta "June" Brown, who was born just weeks before William G. Brown Jr.'s sudden death in March 1916.

Following her husband's death, she became increasingly politically active, working in support of the suffrage amendment in West Virginia. She was also chosen to make the seconding speech for presidential candidate John W. Davis at the Democratic national convention in 1920, having attended as part of a national committee to look after the interests of the suffragists. Following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, she became one of the first women to run--unsuccessfully-- for United States Congress in 1922. She was an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1936 traveling ten thousand miles by plane with pilot Phoebe Fairgrove Omlie to campaign for him.

After her unsuccessful run for Congress, Izetta Jewel Brown traveled abroad both alone and occasionally with her daughter, mother, and sister Hazel. She worked as a freelance lecturer and writer and served as a member of the Women's Committee of Four of the American Farm Bureau Federation, investigating country life abroad. Along with her daughter "June" and her mother "Lilla," she attended Rome's first women's suffrage conference in 1923. During her continuing travels she visited China, among other places, gathering information for her lectures and writings. After her return to the United States in 1927 she married Hugh Miller, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, dean of the College of Engineering at George Washington University and later head of the civil engineering department at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Both before and following the couple's marriage, she held a number of positions, working as freelance writer and lecturer (1920-1927); Radio Dramatic Director and Commentator on Current Events for WGY-Radio in Schenectady, New York (1927-1930); Commissioner of the Department of Public Welfare of Schenectady, New York (1929-1931); as well as holding several federal government positions (1935-1942), among them Regional Director of Women's Activities for the central states in the Work Projects Administration, and Regional Supervisor, War Public Services.

Although Izetta Jewel appears to have been raised as a Methodist, she developed an interest in Christian Science during its early years. She seems to have been an adherent of the First Church of Christ Scientist under Mary Baker Eddy, but following Eddy's death in 1910, and a subsequent schism in the church, she followed the teachings of the Christian Science Parent Church under the leadership of Annie C. Bill. Bill had enlisted several prominent former members of the First Church, among them John V. Dittemore and A. A. Beauchamp. Izetta Jewel remained in regular contact with these leaders of the splinter church that was reorganized into the Church of Universal Design in 1924. She also developed a relationship with Francis J. Mott, who had been a follower of Bill since 1922. Following Bill's death in 1937, Mott, who had organized his own church called The Society of Life, presented his philosophy to the leaders of the Church of Universal Design, who voted to dissolve the church and urged members to join the society. With the exception of John V. Dittemore, who recanted his association with Bill and rejoined the First Church of Christ Scientist, most did, including Izetta Jewel. She held a number positions of authority in the several incarnations of the church, serving on the board of directors of The Society of Life and editor of its publication, Integration Magazine . Although The Society of Life is rumored to have dissolved shortly after World War II, Izetta Jewel continued a correspondence with Mott and received his newsletter until 1969, sending "donations" from time to time, indicating that at least a small core group of members continued to follow Mott's teachings.

By 1948, Izetta Jewel had moved to La Jolla, California, purportedly for her husband Hugh's health. In the same year she began hosting a show on KQBC-Radio in La Jolla, interviewing various individuals and presenting news of local interest. She also began a column in the La Jolla Light, in which she mainly offered commentary on notable La Jolla women and on items of interest to women. She became involved with a number of local organizations including the Social Service League of La Jolla, the La Jolla Women's Club, the Theater and Arts Foundation of San Diego County, the La Jolla Playhouse Women's Committee, etc. Due to her husband's declining health it was necessary to place him in assisted living, where he died in 1965. She remained in La Jolla until her death in 1978.

From the guide to the Papers of Izetta Jewel, (inclusive), (bulk), ca.1850-1978, 1899-1965, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)