Winifred Starr Dobyns
A white woman wearing a fabric hat and a fur stole
Winifred Starr Dobyns in the 1910s, from the Library of Congress
BornOctober 21, 1886
Cook County, Illinois
DiedDecember 30, 1963
Duarte, California
Occupation(s)Suffragist, landscape designer

Winifred Starr Dobyns (October 21, 1886 – December 30, 1963) was an American suffragist and landscape designer.

Early life

Winifred Ursula Starr was born in Cook County, Illinois, the daughter of Merritt Starr and Leila Whadock Starr. Her father was a lawyer.[1]

Career

Dobyns became chair of the Illinois Republican Women's executive committee in July 1919.[2] She was in charge of the women's division of the 1920 presidential campaign of Frank Orren Lowden.[3][4] She attended the celebration and convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Chicago that year.[5] In 1927 she wrote "The Lady and the Tiger (or, the Woman Voter and the Political Machine)",[6] in which she described the place of new women voters in party politics.[7] "With some possible exceptions, the aim of the political organizations is not good government, patriotic service, public welfare," she explained,[2] concluding that "the political machine is the greatest menace to democracy that exists today."[8]

Dobyns worked as a landscape designer in Pasadena,[9] and lectured on gardens.[10][11] She was the author of California Gardens (1931),[12][13] which is considered a valuable photographic source in California architectural history.[14][15] "The text by Mrs. Dobyns sketches the rise and growing interest in gardening and shows the historical background underlying California garden art," noted a reviewer in 1932.[16]

Personal life

In 1909, Winifred Starr married lawyer and writer Fletcher Dobyns.[1][17] After 1932, they lived in an estate in Pasadena overlooking the Rose Bowl.[18] Her husband died in 1942,[19] and she died in 1963, at a retirement home in Duarte, California, aged 77 years.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 "Too Busy Planning Wedding, So He Forgot to Get License". Palladium-Item. 1909-10-21. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Andersen, Kristi (1996). After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics Before the New Deal. University of Chicago Press. pp. 42–43, 100, quote on p. 43. ISBN 978-0-226-01957-4.
  3. ↑ "Woman Joins Lowden's Committee". The New York Times. 1920-01-23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  4. ↑ "Mrs. Paisley on Lowden Committee". Carbondale Free Press. 1920-02-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Women Take Places in 1920 Political Plans". Riverside Daily Press. February 3, 1920. p. 7. Retrieved September 20, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  6. ↑ "The Lady and the Tiger". The Montclair Times. 1927-03-12. p. 41. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Naples, Nancy A. (2014-01-14). Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work, and the War on Poverty. Routledge. pp. 237, note 2. ISBN 978-1-317-79601-5.
  8. ↑ Freeman, Jo (2002). A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-8476-9805-9.
  9. ↑ "Two Historic Gardens in Pasadena". California Garden & Landscape History Society. May 19, 2018. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  10. ↑ "Landscape Expert to be Forum Speaker". Lindsay Gazette. 1942-02-13. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Darling, Flora M. (1932-01-23). "Highways of Color Urged for Olympics". The Long Beach Sun. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Dobyns, Winifred Starr (1996). California Gardens. Allen A. Knoll. ISBN 978-1-888310-88-7.
  13. ↑ H., T. K. (1932). "Review of CALIFORNIA GARDENS". Landscape Architecture. 22 (4): 349–350. ISSN 0023-8031. JSTOR 44669229.
  14. ↑ Prinzing, Debra (2009-02-21). "Uprooting the past". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  15. ↑ Scheid, Ann; Lund, Ann Scheid (1999). Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History. HPN Books. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-893619-01-2.
  16. ↑ "Winifred Dobyns' Garden Book Praised by Critics". The Pasadena Post. 1931-11-11. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Wayte, Beverly (1991). "Linda Vista Revisited: From Indian Days to Modern Pasadenans: Part III". Southern California Quarterly. 73 (4): 346. doi:10.2307/41171595. ISSN 0038-3929. JSTOR 41171595.
  18. ↑ Barragan, Bianca (2018-05-07). "Winsome 1932 estate overlooking the Rose Bowl seeks $5.6M". Curbed LA. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  19. ↑ "Obituaries: Fletcher Dobyns". Chicago Tribune. 1942-12-15. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Pasadena Socialite's Rites Held". Pasadena Independent. 1964-01-03. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-09-21 – via Newspapers.com.
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