Herminie Templeton Kavanagh

Herminie Templeton Kavanagh
Herminie Templeton Kavanagh
Born	Minnie Allen McGibney; 6 May 1861; Aldershot, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Died	30 October 1933 (aged 72); Chicago, Illinois, United States
Resting place	New York, USA
Nationality	Irish
Notable works	Darby O'Gill and the Good People (ISBN 0-9666701-0-8); Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O'Gill Tales (ISBN 0-8369-4018-0); The Color Sergeant (1903); Swift-Wing of the Cherokee (1903)
Spouse	John Templeton; Judge Marcus Kavanagh

Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (6 May 1861^[1]^[2] – 30 October 1933)^[3] was an Irish writer, most known for her short stories.

Early life and family

Born Minnie Allen McGibney at the British army barracks in Aldershot, England, on 6 May 1861, she was the second of seven children born to Major George McGibney from Templemichael, County Longford, Ireland, and Caroline Allen from Coventry, England.^[1]

The family moved to Quebec, Canada in 1872. By 1880 Minnie lived in Manhattan with her widowed mother and six siblings and worked as a sales clerk.^[1]

Her first marriage was to vaudeville performer John Templeton.^[1]^[5] An article in the Chicago Tribune later stated that she had been abandoned by her first husband in Chicago circa 1893.^[6] After their separation, Minnie worked in Chicago as a clerk and stenographer. She adopted the name Herminie some time before 1900, and published her first writing in 1901.^[1]

She became Herminie Templeton Kavanagh after her second marriage, to Marcus Kavanagh (1859–1937), who was born in the United States to Irish immigrants, and who served as a Cook County judge in Chicago from 1898 to 1935.^[7] Accounts differ on how they met, as well as where and when they married, ranging from 1905 to 1908 in Dublin or Iowa.^[a]

She and Judge Kavanagh lived together in Chicago and Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Works

Her best known work, Darby O'Gill and the Good People (ISBN 0-9666701-0-8), was first published as a series of stories under the name Herminie Templeton in McClure's magazine in 1901–1902, before being published as a book in the United States in 1903. A second edition, published a year before her death, was under the name Herminie T. Kavanagh. The Good People in the title refers to the fairies in Irish mythology; the English translation of aoine maithe is good people.

Her second published book, Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O'Gill Tales (ISBN 0-8369-4018-0), was published in 1926. In 1959, Walt Disney released a film based on these two books, called Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

She also wrote two plays, The Color Sergeant (1903), and Swift-Wing of the Cherokee (1903).

Darby O'Gill and the Good People 1903 illus. by John R. Neill
The Ashes of Old Wishes 1906 illus. by Edmund J. Sullivan
Killbohgan and Killboggan 1906 illus. by Edmund J. Sullivan

Death

She died of a heart ailment in Chicago on 30 October 1933, aged 72.^[1] She was buried in New York, her former home.

Notes

^ In July 1908, the Tribune announced that they would be married at his parents' church in Des Moines, Iowa, but that the judge was "reticent as to the details."^[8] Another article in the Tribune, several weeks later, said that Mrs. Templeton had been abandoned by her first husband in Chicago circa 1893. In the course of the clerical work in the city recorder's office by which she supported herself,^[6] she met Judge Kavanagh, and they were to be married at the church in County Waterford, Ireland where his parents had been married. "It is said there has been a silent understanding and a wait of over ten years" until John Templeton's death in 1907, the article explained.^[9] But the following day, the Tribune reported that they were married in Dublin, Ireland on 19 August 1908, by a monsignor from Des Moines, Iowa.^[10] But according to her 1933 obituary in the same newspaper, they met in Ireland in 1907 while the judge was touring Europe and she was gathering material for a book, and they married on 19 August 1908, at his parents' church in Des Moines.^[11] Judge Kavanagh's listing in Who Was Who in America (1943) said that they were married on 19 August 1905.^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Doig, James (2022). "Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (1861-1933)". The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature (20): 69–74. ISSN 2009-6089. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
^ Births Jun 1861 MCGIBNEY Minnie Allen Farnham 2a 75. FreeBMD. England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index: 1837–1983 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.
^ Illinois State Archives, Database of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1950 Archived 11 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Donovan, Henry. "Chicago Eagle". Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.
^ U.S. Census, 1 June 1900. State of Illinois, County of Cook, City of Chicago, enumeration district 46, page 8A, family 106.
^ ^a ^b "Chicago Woman Writing Irish Fairy Tales," Chicago Tribune, 2 August 1902, p. 16.
^ "Marcus Kavanagh one of many judges in Iroquois Theater fire trials". www.iroquoistheater.com. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
^ "Bachelor Jurist and Bride-to-Be," Chicago Tribune, 16 July 1908, p. 4.
^ "Local Jurist Weds in Erin; Sequel of Chicago Romance," Chicago Tribune, 19 August 1908, p. 13. A ship passenger list shows Herminie and her sister Edith McGibney two names away from Judge Kavanagh's on the passenger list of a ship embarking from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1906. S.S. Columbia, port of New York, 6 August 1906.
^ "Judge Kavanagh Weds Author," Chicago Tribune, 20 August 1908, p. 7.
^ "Mrs. Kavanagh, Wife of Judge, Dies; Ill a Week," Chicago Tribune, 31 October 1933, p. 22. It is unlikely that they were married in Iowa at that time. Marcus Kavanagh's application for a U.S. passport for himself "and wife", made on 28 July 1908, said that he was about to depart on 1 August for a period of three months. He and Herminie returned to the United States on 25 October 1908. Passenger list, S.S. St. Paul, port of New York.
^ Who Was Who in America, Volume I. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1943.