Cleveland storyteller Dan Ruminski discusses the most famous and infamous women of Millionaires' Row Jan. 25 at Pine Ridge Country Club, with proceeds going toward providing iPads for children with autism. Ruminski gives us insight into two of the row's residents.
Laura Mae Corrigan
Laura Mae Corrigan was never really accepted into Cleveland society. Maybe that's because when she married into the Corrigan-McKinney Steel Co. fortune in 1917, James W. Corrigan was her second husband. So the couple spent much of their time in Europe. "Laura Mae Corrigan dreamed of entertaining kings and queens," says Ruminski. "She was the premier hostess throughout Europe for over 30 years." Even when James returned to run the company, Laura Mae stayed abroad except to visit. "Through a sequence of events, she wound up with the whole fortune."
Laura Spelman Rockefeller
As the 14-year-old valedictorian of Cleveland's Central High School, Laura Spelman used her speech to argue for women's pursuit of independent thought. After marrying her high school sweetheart, John D. Rockefeller, at age 25, she continued on that path, supporting Cleveland charities and founding Spelman College. "Both she and John D. Rockefeller were supporters of the Underground Railroad," says Ruminski. "She had a saying, and she would ask her children, •Is it right, and is it duty? If it is, then do it.' "
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