My research on the life of Mary Elizabeth of the House of White, began in 2014 when I overheard two little girls doing the Miss Mary Mack clapping song as follows:
Mary Elizabeth of the House of White in 1912
Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back.
She asked her mother, mother, mother. For 50 cents, cents, cents To see the elephants, elephants, elephants.
Jump over the fence, fence, fence.
They jumped so high, high, high
They reached the sky, sky, sky.
And they didn't come back, back, back. Til the 4th of July, ly, ly!
"Who was this woman that this song is based on?" I thought. So I began a years long delve into research to learn the history of her. I expected it to be a simple explanation such as the song London Bridge being about the plague and it almost was. The first explanation was the song was about the ironclad warship, the CSS Virginia which used to be called Merrimack, the black representing the color and the silver buttons are its rivets. There is also a political origin, the elephants being a representation of the Republican party. but then I unearthed the files or Mary Elizabeth White, a New York socialite who rubbed elbows with some of the richest families on earth back in the early 1900s. Mary White was also into fencing, gymnastics could play the piano, sing opera and swam back and forth to the Statue of Liberty for exercise! (That's about 2 miles. the more I researched the stranger her life's story became (I say life story but there is no recorded data on her death). I was able to pinpoint where she lived in New York. A location right next to where the Astor's used to live across the street from Central Park, but there was no street address AND it was rumored she lived in a lighthouse! It gets stranger, There were also rumors of witchcraft, living with a Nigerian butler with tribal scars on his face and she had adopted a Chinese girl who's knew kung fu and apparently, Chinese girls were not allowed in the country at that time! The Books are a retelling of all of the stories, rumors and historical facts I could piece together from libraries, the internet and interviews with eyewitness who claimed to have seen some of the weird things that happened in New York in the year the Great Chatsworth Train Wreck in 1887and a strange circus accident involving elephants. Join me as I uncover the mystery of her adventurous life story. And please purchase the novel containing the full story.
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