Marion Graves Anthon Fish

Marion Graves Anthon Fish
Born	June 8, 1853 New York City, New York
Died	May 25, 1915 Glenclyffe, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	"Mamie"
Spouse(s)	Stuyvesant Fish

Marion Graves Anthon "Mamie" Fish (June 8, 1853 – May 25, 1915) was an American socialite and self-styled "fun-maker" of the Gilded Age. She and her husband Stuyvesant Fish maintained stately homes in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.

"Mamie", as she was called, was the daughter of William Henry Anthon (1827 – 75), a successful lawyer and Staten Island assemblyman. She only received a rudimentary education and, by her own admission, could barely read and write. On June 1, 1876, she married Stuyvesant Fish, the director of the National Park Bank of New York City and president of the Illinois Central Railroad.

Mamie ruled as one of the so-called Triumvirate of American Gilded Age society, along with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Tessie Oelrichs. She became a notable leader of high society (in New York City at her townhouse at 25 East 78th Street, at her stately home Glenclyffe in New York State, and at her mansion Crossways in Newport, RI) by virtue of her quick wit and sharp tongue. Grandees attending her dinner parties would be greeted with the occasional insult "Make yourself perfectly at home, and believe me, there is no one who wishes you there more heartily than I do." One man was greeted with "Oh, how do you do! I had quite forgotten I asked you!"

In collusion with her antics, Harry Lehr often served as a co-planner of outrageous parties, such as the one given in honor of "Prince DelDrago of Corsica", who turned out to be a well-dressed monkey (given too much champagne, the monkey proceeded to climb the chandelier and throw light bulbs at the guests). At another of her parties, dancers holding peanuts would feed an elephant she rented as they danced by it. Mrs. Fish's cattiness respected no rank, for when Theodore Roosevelt's wife sought to keep a frugal household, "Mamie" Fish was quoted as condescendingly saying of Mrs. Roosevelt "It is said [she] dresses on three hundred dollars a year, and she looks it."

She died on May 25, 1915 and is buried near Glenclyffe at the Church of St. Philip-in-the-Highlands. Her Newport "summer cottage", Crossways, is now a condominium.

Published by: New York State Historical Association. Web. October 21, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23178766

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