Mary Landon Baker (b. August 15, 1901; died 1961) was a rich American

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

and heiress famous for her romantic life. Newspapers worldwide covered her love life with Allister McCormick, whom she repeatedly left at the altar in the early 1920s. In 1926 she was briefly engaged to Bojidar Pouritch, who worked as a Yugoslav diplomat; a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' correspondent stated their engagement caused, "the greatest excitement since the European war". Among those she rejected as possible husbands were also an English Lord, a rich Spaniard, and an Irish prince. She reportedly had received 65 marriage proposals by the time she died, but never married. The ''New York Times'' reported that the theater actor Barry Baxter died of a heart attack on the day that Baker broke up with him. Baker was apparently enamoured for most of her life with the British politician and writer

Henry "Chips" Channon Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), often known as Chips Channon, was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that Amer ...

who refers to her repeatedly in his published diaries.

Family

Baker's parents were Chicago lawyer and financier Alfred L. Baker and Mary Corwith. She had an older sister, Isabelle,Crowell, Deborah
"
''ancestry.com'' from the book ''Men of 1914''. The name is spelled 'Isabelle' in this report. Retrieved 2017-02-09. whose married name in 1926 was Mrs. Robert M. Curtis and in 1934, Mrs. Isabelle Baker Curtis Welch, and two nieces Isabelle and Priscilla."Robert M. Curtis Acts to Settle Alimony Dispute"
''Chicago Daily Tribune'', November 24, 1934. The names are spelled 'Isabel' in this report. Retrieved 2017-02-09. Baker lived most of her life in Chicago, and when her father passed away in 1927 she inherited a large inheritance which allowed her to remain single and live on her own, unlike many women at the time who lacked money of their own.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Mary Landon 1901 births 1961 deaths American socialites