Rebecca (?)

F, #97771

Family: Benjamin Buss b. 27 Dec 1761

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Marriage
Pedigree

John Dorsey Houghton1

M, #97772, b. 2 December 1964

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
BirthDec 2, 1964New York Lying-In Hospital, New York, New York Co., NY, USA, 4th child1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1964.

Joseph Houghton1

M, #97773

Family:

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Origin1964Buenos Aires, Brazil1
Residence1965Boca Raton, Palm Beach Co., FL, USA1
Duplicate
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

Edith Anita Houghton1

F, #97774

Family: Louis Dubois Fletcher III b. c 1946

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birth
Graduation1964Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Occupation1965Evanston High School, Evanston, IL, USA, taught Spanish
EngagementJan 31, 19651
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

Louis Dubois Fletcher III1

M, #97775, b. circa 1946

Family: Edith Anita Houghton

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1946
Graduation1964Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
EngagementJan 31, 19651
ParentsSLouis Dubois Fletcher Jr, of Scarsdale NY
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

R. A. Merritt1

M, #97776

Family: Ann Pringle

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Mil. Serv.1965US Navy, ensign
MarriageJul 24, 1965Stamford, CT, USA1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

Alfred E. Brown1

M, #97777

Family: Gratia Houghton Rhinehart b. 6 Aug 1927, d. 2005

  • Mar 3*: Alfred E. Brown married third Gratia Houghton Rhinehart.1
  • Divorce*: Alfred E. Brown and Gratia Houghton Rhinehart were divorced.

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Mar 31
Divorce
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

Richard P. Waters Jr1

M, #97778

Family: Gratia Houghton Rhinehart b. 6 Aug 1927, d. 2005

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
MarriageDec 19, 1965New Bedford, MA, USA, her 4th1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.

Katherine Pollard Maddux1

F, #97779, b. circa 1945, d. 18 September 1971

Family: Alfred Ballentine Houghton b. 7 Apr 1943, d. 4 Dec 2008

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1945
MarriageJun 14, 1966McLean, VA, USA1
Separationcirca 1970
DeathSep 18, 1971McLean, VA, USA, age 262
ParentsDHer grandfather Ricardo J. Alfaro, president of Panama and vice president of the World Court at the Hague.
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1965.
  2. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1971.

Cheryl Virginia Houghton1

F, #97780, b. 26 January 1947, d. 10 January 2014

Family 1: John William Easton

Family 2: Gradwell Mark Girardi

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
BirthJan 26, 1947Boston, Suffolk Co., MA, USA, Obit: Andover, MA2
MarriageNov 12, 1966Larchmont, NY, USA1
DeathJan 10, 2014Hilton Head, SC, USA2
Duplicate
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1966.
  2. [S93] Newspaper Obituary, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/islandpacket/obituary.aspx

John William Easton1

M, #97781

Family: Cheryl Virginia Houghton b. 26 Jan 1947, d. 10 Jan 2014

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
MarriageNov 12, 1966Larchmont, NY, USA1
ParentsSI. David Easton of Mamaroneck
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1966.

Deborah Houghton1

F, #97782

Family: (?) Taylor

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
BirthMA, USA
Marriage2
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1966.
  2. [S93] Newspaper Obituary, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/islandpacket/obituary.aspx

Emerson Wirt Axe

M, #97783, b. circa 1885, d. 26 March 1964

Family: Ruth E. Houghton b. 21 Oct 1899, d. 16 Apr 1967

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
NotableY
Birthcirca 1885Plymouth, IN, USA1
Graduation1920Harvard University, Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA, USA
MarriageSep 25, 1932
Residence1941Tarrytown, NY, USA
DeathMar 26, 1964Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York Co., NY, USA, age 791
ObituaryMar 28, 1964New York, New York Co., NY, USA, Emerson Wirt Axe, Economist And Head of Mutual Funds, Dies; Financial Advlser,'an expert
on chess and Wines, Used a Castle as His Office

March 28, 1964, Saturday1
BiographyNov 8, 1987The View from Axe Caste: Optimistic By PENNY SINGER Published: November 8, 1987
Despite the tumult on Wall Street, the Axe Castle in Tarrytown is not under seige. In the Great Hall, beneath its beautiful rose window, the research department is quietly at work. And it is business as usual in the formal ballroom below, now used by the Axe computer department. The 18th-century Oak Room, unchanged since it was brought intact from a Paris mansion, is being readied for a meeting.
The castle has been the headquarters of Axe-Houghton Management Inc. since 1941, when Emerson and Ruth Houghton Axe bought the Tarrytown landmark for $45,000 as the site for both their home and their mutual-fund and investment-counsel business.
The business began in 1932, when Mr. and Mrs. Axe, both well-known economists, started managing the funds of monied friends such as Gen. Howard Carroll, who built the castle, known then as Carrollcliffe, 90 years ago. Today Axe manages $1.5 billion for institutional clients, including the pension funds of Fortune 500 companies; state, city and union organizations; and the shareholders of the four Axe-Houghton mutual funds.
In the midst of the stock market's steep decline last month, the chairman of Axe-Houghton, John L. Schroeder, was asked about his company's future goals. He quickly replied: ''To grow to $3 billion within the next few years. There are some unbelievably attractive values to be had right now. We're buying.''
Describing the problems on Wall Street as ''technical rather than fundamental,'' Mr. Schroeder said: ''I believe the fear that the dollar would drop, with interest rates already causing worry, started the selling. You never know when confidence will break. One cannot forecast emotions. Much of the cause of the turmoil on Wall Street is irrational.''
Nor does Mr. Schroeder anticipate that the turmoil in the market will greatly affect the long-run performance of Axe-Houghton.
''We plan for five and ten years down the road - we ride out the storms,'' he said. ''For the last five years we've ranged in the top quartile of all investment managers. That's what counts in the marketplace.''
The greater the risk, the higher the reward, Mr. Schroeder said when questioned about Axe-Houghton's investment philosophy. ''For more than 50 years we have demonstrated that intelligent risk-taking is rewarded over long periods.'' He added:
''Achieving the correct balance between risk and reward for our clients is our aim. We specialize in growth companies, young companies on the way up, because we believe that small new companies with new technologies grow faster than do old companies.''
When asked if the market's plunge set off phone calls from worried pension managers, Mr. Schroeder shook his head. ''Pension managers think long-term,'' he said. ''But we phoned some of them just to touch base during a trying time.''
Since becoming chairman and chief executive officer in 1983, Mr. Schroeder has made some fundamental changes at Axe-Houghton. He switched the Axe-Houghton mutual funds to ''no-load'' - eliminating an up-front charge of 8.5 percent on share purchases. He established an aggressive marketing program and he has opened new markets - and diversified the company - by going after individual investors.
A year ago Axe-Houghton assembled a force of investment counselors and began offering customized retirement services for individuals. It was a logical next step for pension-management specialists, according to Mr. Schroeder.
''Working with pension funds for so many years, we realized that, although people were delighted to get a large lump sum of pension money, they were bewildered by it,'' he said. ''They really didn't know how to handle it. They weren't aware of their options and they needed help in making the financial decisions that would assure them of a comfortable retirement.''
Axe-Houghton, Mr. Schroeder said, invested millions of dollars in developing this program. ''We took into consideration that when working with retirement programs, one size does not fit all,'' he said. ''Every client's specific goals and priorities have to be analyzed."
The retirement services are targeted to individuals who have $100,000 to $500,000 to invest. According to Mr. Schroeder, the average amount invested is about $200,000. There are no commission fees, but a management fee of six-tenths of 1 percent a year is collected directly.
''The start-up of the retirement program was extremely expensive,'' Mr. Schroeder said. ''We were only able to develop it after we became a subsidiary, in the spring of 1985, of the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Corporation,'' a Baltimore-based insurance company with $9 billion in assets. ''Fidelity and Guaranty owns 80 percent of our stock and one of their senior officers is on our board, but we have autonomy,'' he said, citing especially the autonomy to change the way investment decisions are made within the company.
''We're analyst-driven now rather than portfolio-driven,'' Mr. Schroeder said, explaining that in almost every investment organization there are both portfolio managers and research analysts. ''I decided to let the analysts rather than portfolio managers set the pace. We no longer have portfolio managers. If an oil analyst now makes recommendations, he doesn't need the approval of a portfolio manager before the recommendation becomes a decision.''
Calling research analysis ''the most important factor in our continuing good performance,'' Mr. Schroeder said that the authority the company provides its analysts helps it attract good candidates.
Mr. Schroeder, who is 57, can assess the strengths and weaknesses of the company he now heads from an unusual vantage point: during an investment career of more than 30 years, he has rejoined Axe-Houghton three times.
''My first association with Mr. and Mrs. Axe and Axe-Houghton was in 1961, when I was president and manager of the Templeton Growth Fund,'' he recalled. ''I managed the Axe-Templeton Growth Fund, which was a joint venture between the two firms. I was asked to serve as president and director of research at Axe-Houghton Management'' - a post he held from 1972 to 1975 - ''and I left to become president of Keystone Custodian Funds in Boston.''
After four years at Keystone, Mr. Schroeder went to Bankers Trust Company in Manhattan, where he was senior vice president and chairman of the investment committee. He rejoined Axe-Houghton in 1983 and as chairman and chief executive officer, started making changes.
Mr. and Mrs. Axe, both of whom died in the 1960's, ''believed it wasn't ethical for investment counselors to solicit business,'' he said. ''They kept a low profile, so low in fact that most people didn't know what was going on here in the castle. Their feeling was that if they did a good job managing money that was all the advertising necessary. I understood their attitude, which was adhered to by Justin Dunn, who followed them as chairman, but I also realized that we had a lot to learn about marketing if we were to grow.''
Mr. Schroeder recruited Stephen Darby Jr. in 1984 from Massachusetts Financial Services Company to take charge of Axe-Houghton's marketing effort.
Events such as seminars on retirement and investment strategy, community concerts and opening the castle doors to the boards of charitable organizations characterize Axe-Houghton today.
Mr. Schroeder pointed to a framed reprint of a July 19, 1929, article on Emerson Axe, in which Mr. Axe warned of the imminent collapse of the stock market. ''I never forget what Mr. Axe was fond of saying,'' he observed. ''That 80 percent of investment performance comes from making the right strategic decision.''
Photo of the Axe Castle in Tarrytown; John L. Schroeder, chairman of Axe-Houghton Management Inc; the Great Hall of Axe Castle; librarian Kathleen Bailey (NYT/Suzanne DeChillo)2
NotablePresident of E. W. Axe & Co., and Axe-Houghton Mutual Funds
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1964.
  2. [S654] Electronic Web Site, , http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/08/nyregion/…

Ruth Houghton1

F, #97784, b. 19 August 1901, d. October 1979

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
BirthAug 19, 19011
SSNNY, USA, 087-07-39381
DeathOct, 19791
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S1042] Social Security Death Index, Houghton Surname, Social Security Death Index, Dec. 2001.

Warren Snow Van Deventer1

M, #97785

Family: Ruth Parsons Houghton b. 22 Nov 1946

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
GraduationParsons College, Fairfield, IA, USA
EngagementDec 18, 1967Framingham, MA, USA1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1967.

Ruth Kadish1

F, #97786, b. circa 1901

Family: Walter Livingston Houghton b. 2 Feb 1879, d. 5 Mar 1967

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1901Poland, age 39 in 1940 censusage 44 in 1945 census
1940 Census1940New York, New York Co., NY, USA, age 61, general sales manager2
Marriage1
Census1945Pinellas Co., FL, USA, age 66, retired
Living1967Clearwater, Pinellas Co., FL, USA1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1967.
  2. [S1479] 1940 U.S. Federal Census , New York, New York, New York; Roll: T627_2626; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 31-49.

Laura Richardson McCord1

F, #97787

Family 1: George Gordon Guthrie

  • Engagement: Laura Richardson McCord and George Gordon Guthrie were engaged on Sep 25, 1971.1
  • Marriage*: Laura Richardson McCord married George Gordon Guthrie on Feb 12, 1972 at Rye, NY, USA, by Rev. Alonson B. Houghton, her uncle.2

Family 2: Peter Grauer

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Birth1
MarriageFeb 12, 1972Rye, NY, USA, by Rev. Alonson B. Houghton, her uncle2
Marriage
Children+Victoria F. Grauer and Nina D. Grauer3
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1971.
  2. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1972.
  3. [S601] Family Group Sheet, created by Robert West Houghton, 2021.

George Gordon Guthrie1

M, #97788

Family: Laura Richardson McCord

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
GraduationColumbia University, New York, New York Co., NY, USA, MBA
EngagementSep 25, 19711
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1971.
  2. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1972.

Charles Spencer Bissell Jr1

M, #97789

Family: Deanne Constance Houghton b. c 1945

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
GraduationYale University, New Haven, New Haven Co., CT, USA
MarriageSep 30, 19721
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1972.

Lee Hansen1

?, #97790

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Birth1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1972.

Constance Elizabeth Hallbach1

F, #97791, b. circa 1948

Family: Peter Houghton Engelking b. c 1945

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1948
Occupation1974San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA, USA, nursing instructor at College of California Medical Affiliates
MarriageDec 28, 1974Yalesville, CT, USA1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1974.

Robert Cameron Haughton1

M, #97792, b. circa 1960

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1960
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.

William R. Haughton1

M, #97793, b. 23 November 1923, d. 15 July 1986

Family: Dorothy (?)

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
NotableY
BirthNov 23, 1923Gloversville, NY, USA2
Marriage1
Newspaper1980Du Quoin, IL, USA, Haughtons Racing With a Sad Memory
By JAMES TUITE Special to The New York Times August 30, 1980
DU QUOIN, Ill., Aug. 29--His name is Robert Cameron Haughton, but everybody calls him Cammy, and he has a problem.1
DeathJul 15, 1986Valhalla, NY, USA, of head injury.2
OccupationBill and 3 sons were all horse trotters, the "racing Haughtons"; Bill by 1980 had won $478,899 in prize money in 20 Hambeltonian dashes
NotableBilly Haughton: One of the great harness drivers
BiographyBilly Haughton, or William R. Haughton (November 23, 1923 – July 15, 1986) was an American harness driver and trainer, and one of the most-winning drivers ever. He was one of only three drivers to win the Hambletonian four times, the only one to win the Little Brown Jug five times, and the only one to win the Messenger Stakes seven times. With a career record of 4,910 wins and c. $40? in earnings, he was first in annual winnings twelve times – 1952-59, 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1968 – and in heats won from 1953-58.

Born in Gloversville, NY, Haughton came from a farming background where he competed in fairground races before coming into harness driving. In the early 1960s he started developing a stable of his own. His best horses were Rum Customer that won the pacing Triple Crown in 1968, and Green Speed that was named harness horse of the year in 1977. With his Meadow Paige, Haughton paced a world record 1:55.2 minute mile in a time trail at Lexington in 1967. He died in Valhalla, New York from head injuries sustained at Yonkers Raceway.

Haughton’s oldest son, Peter, who was also a driver, died in a car crash in 1980.

Wipipedia
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.
  2. [S1370] Wikipedia, online http://en.wikipedia.org

Tom Haughton1

M, #97794, b. circa 1957

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Birthcirca 19571
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.

Peter Haughton

M, #97795, b. circa 1955, d. January 1980

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birthcirca 1955
DeathJan, 1980NJ, USA, killed at age of 25 near Meadowlands track in NJ when his car went out of control

.1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.

Dorothy (?)1

F, #97796

Family: William R. Haughton b. 23 Nov 1923, d. 15 Jul 1986

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Marriage1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.

Eleanor Hindman1

F, #97797, d. 1929

Family: Lessing Lanham Engelking b. 4 Nov 1902, d. 19 Oct 1980

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Marriage1
Death19291
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.
  2. [S654] Electronic Web Site, , http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html

(?) Teitler1

M, #97798

Family: Elizabeth Engelking

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Corresponded with authorN
Marriage1
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 1980.

Nan Robertson1

F, #97799, b. 11 July 1926, d. 13 October 2009

Family:

Biography

NotableY
Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
BirthJul 11, 1926Chicago, Cook Co., IL, USA1
DeathOct 13, 2009Rockville, MD, USA, age 83
ObituaryOct 14, 2009New York, New York Co., NY, USA, Nan Robertson, Pulitzer-Winning Times Reporter, Dies at 83
By MARGALIT FOX
Published: October 14, 2009

Nan Robertson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times who was widely known for her book “The Girls in the Balcony,” which chronicled the fight for workplace parity by female employees of The Times, and for writing candidly about her alcoholism and battle with toxic shock syndrome, died on Tuesday in Rockville, Md. She was 83 and lived in Bethesda, Md.

The apparent cause was heart disease, said Jane Freundel Levey, Ms. Robertson’s stepdaughter-in-law. After retiring from The Times in 1988, Ms. Robertson taught journalism at the University of Maryland and elsewhere.

A reporter at The Times for more than three decades, Ms. Robertson received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for “Toxic Shock,” published in The New York Times Magazine the year before. The article unsparingly described the author’s swift, brutal encounter with the illness, which resulted in her losing the ends of eight fingers:

“I went dancing the night before in a black velvet Paris gown, on one of those evenings that was the glamour of New York epitomized. I was blissfully asleep at 3 a.m.

“Twenty-four hours later, I lay dying, my fingers and legs darkening with gangrene.”

Ms. Robertson, who after a grueling rehabilitation was able to resume her career, wrote two books. The first, “Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous” (Morrow, 1988), was both a history of the organization and a narrative of the author’s recovery from alcoholism. The second, “The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men and The New York Times” (Random House, 1992), was in part about the suit brought by female employees against the newspaper in 1974.

Reviewing “The Girls in the Balcony” in The New York Times Book Review, the sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild called it a “warm, salty, wisecracking book.”

Nancy Robertson was born in Chicago on July 11, 1926, the daughter of Frank and Eva Morrish Robertson. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1948 and afterward worked in Europe as a reporter for several newspapers, among them The Milwaukee Journal and the Paris edition of The New York Herald Tribune.

In 1955, Ms. Robertson joined The Times, where she was assigned, as women often were then, to the women’s news department. Her early articles for the paper — hundreds of them — were about fashion, shopping and interior decorating. She became a reporter on the newspaper’s metropolitan staff in 1959.

In 1963, Ms. Robertson began a decade as a reporter in the Washington bureau of The Times, where, as she said in an interview many years later, her de facto job description was to cover the “first lady, her children and their dogs.” Her years in Washington would furnish her with the title for “The Girls in the Balcony,” a reference to the cramped second-story space in the National Press Club to which female journalists were then relegated.

“The Girls in the Balcony” was an account of the events surrounding Elizabeth Boylan et al. v. The New York Times, a federal class-action suit filed on behalf of 550 women at The Times over inequities including pay, assignments and advancement. (Ms. Robertson was not among the seven named plaintiffs in the suit.) In 1978, the suit was settled out of court for $350,000, with The Times agreeing to an affirmative-action plan.

Leaving Washington in 1973, Ms. Robertson spent two and a half years as a correspondent in the Paris bureau of The Times before debilitating alcoholism forced her to return to New York for treatment. As she recounted candidly in “Getting Better”:

“I began drinking seriously when I was 22, just out of college and beginning my career as a newspaperwoman. My generation of newspaper people consisted of two-fisted drinkers. In the circles I moved in, drinking was not just socially acceptable, it was an emblem of maturity.”

As Ms. Robertson described it, her drinking worsened precipitously after the death of her second husband, Stanley Levey, in 1971. Her first marriage, to Allyn Baum, ended in divorce. Her third, to William Warfield Ross, ended with his death in 2006. Ms. Robertson is survived by a sister, Jane Robertson Paetz; five stepchildren, Bob Levey, John Frank Levey, Mary Houghton, James Houghton and William P. Ross; and nine step-grandchildren.

After undergoing residential treatment for alcoholism and severe depression, Ms. Robertson was able to stop drinking. She continued her work at The Times, first as a reporter for the Living and Style pages, writing often about the lives of women, from the primatologists Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall to students at Spelman College, a historically black college for women in Atlanta. She was later a reporter in the newspaper’s culture department, where her work included articles about the writers Mary McCarthy and Bernard Malamud, the poet Adrienne Rich and the actress Claudette Colbert.

In 1981, while visiting her family in Illinois, Ms. Robertson fell ill with toxic shock syndrome. Caused by a bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, the syndrome is most closely associated with tampon use. But Ms. Robertson, then 55, was among the small number of postmenopausal women (along with some men and children) who come down with it.

She spent two days in a coma. Most of her internal organs were severely poisoned by toxins released by the bacteria, and she suffered serious muscle damage. Gangrene set in, and as a result the end joints of all eight of her fingers — the thumbs were spared — had to be amputated.

After two months in the hospital, she returned to New York. “I could not turn a single knob on any door, or any faucet, or the stereo or the television set,” Ms. Robertson wrote. “I could not wash myself, dress or undress myself, pull a zipper, button a button, tie shoelaces.” She despaired that her career was over.

She underwent months of painful physical therapy and more operations. Little by little, she relearned to use her hands.

“My deepest fear did not materialize,” Ms. Robertson wrote in her Pulitzer Prize-winning article, published less than a year after she became ill. “I have typed the thousands of words of this article, slowly and with difficulty, once again able to practice my craft as a reporter. I have written it — at last — with my own hands.”1
NotablePulitzer-Winning Times Reporter
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 2009.

Mary Houghton1

F, #97800

Biography

Corresponded with authorN
A Contributor to Houghton Surname ProjectN
Birth
Living2009Bethesda, Montgomery Co., MD, USA
Pedigree

Citations

  1. [S95] Newspaper, New York Times Archives: 2009.