AWOG’s Founding Member
by: Katerina Sirouni
Lucretia del Valle Grady, born on October 18, 1892 in Los Angeles, was an actress, political activist and suffragette. By 1910, the Herald had quoted about del Valle that “her friends in Los Angeles are overjoyed at the success already achieved in her stage work and who enthusiastically predict big things to come.”
In 1917, she moved to New York to study philosophy and political economy at Columbia University where she became deeply involved in the Woman Suffrage Movement and the agitation for a constitutional amendment to give all American females the right to vote in national elections.
source: https//scvhistory.com/ (l), TESSA - Los Angeles Library (r)
After only a short time, she met and married, Professor Henry Francis Grady, chair of the Political Economy Department at Columbia and a distinguished shipping executive. When Grady was named assistant secretary of state in 1939, Time magazine observed:
“Besides his ability and geniality, Dr. Grady at 57 is famed also for his high-powered, jet-haired, Spanish-blooded little wife: Lucretia del Valle Grady.”
Henry Grady was the Ambassador to Greece during 1948-1950, with Lucretia aside him, playing a pivotal in local Greek affairs.
source: www.homesteadmuseum
In fact, Mrs. Grady, considered her involvement, ‘her greatest accomplishment’, promoting a public meeting where more than 360,000 persons attended. Records state, that she helped raise $1million for Greek relief.
During the Civil War, it has been noted that she often made visits to areas under difficult hardship without considering her own personal danger.
Due to all her efforts to support Greece at the time, Lucretia del Valle Grady, became the first woman named an honorary citizen of Athens in 1949.
After Greece, Ambassador Grady was stationed in Iran where Mrs. Grady promoted women’s suffrage - "If you show your independence, you can have the vote for women in one year". Her Thursday morning meetings were the talk of Tehran where social problems as illiteracy, woman's suffrage and ways to improve the Capital's unsanitary water supply were discussed.
Lucretia del Valle Grady, has also been acclaimed as "one of the greatest ladies in the history of San Francisco - a pioneer for peace, a pioneer for women's rights and one of the truly great people of California."
Lucretia del Valle Grady (c) in Iran, source: https://cougarnews.com
Lucretia del Valle Grady was also the initiator of The “Cavalcade of Greek Fashions”, held in 1950 at the Hotel Grande Bretagne.
In the “Memoirs of Ambassador Henry F. Grady”, Henry Grady proudly narrates how his wife believed that Greece could build a fashion export industry similar to Paris and help raise funds at the same time. The unique traditional costumes of the Greek villages, dresses that were worn by women only on special occasions were the perfect inspiration.
Mrs. Grady would say, “These costumes are the expression of art of the people and there are no peasant costumes anywhere in the world more beautiful”.
After the Athens event and before Paris, there were showings in various cities in the United States under the patronage of the wife of the Greek Ambassador to the U.S. with First Lady, Mrs. Harry Truman as the guest of honor at the premiere in Washigton D.C.
photos (from Paris show): NANARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive
“Work and Victory Week”
As mentioned in the ‘Memoirs of Ambassador Henry F. Grady’, Lucretia del Valle, assisted in the “Work and Victory Week” - a work-week full of activities such as volunteering, blood drives, tree plantings, sewing for refugees, therapy for the wounded and folk dancing during which, over 70 Women’s Organizations united for a common purpose.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Grady, source: https//scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw3119.htmstory.com
Lucretia del Valle Grady, has also been acclaimed as "one of the greatest ladies in the history of San Francisco - a pioneer for peace, a pioneer for women's rights and one of the truly great people of California."
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