Jean Marie Jay was born Dec. 19, 1904 in Hobart Indian Territory, the daughter of Frank H. Jay and Josie Stacy Jay. The 1910 US Census lists Marie as the only child of a father who came from Canada/England and a mother who came from Texas. The 1920 Census lists also Doris Jay, who may be another daughter/sister.

When Marie was four years old, her home became the State of Oklahoma and she got to pin a star on the American flag representing the new State. Two years later she and her family moved to Oklahoma City, where she went to school. Her father was the proprietor of the Jay Grocery Company there. Marie attended Central High School in Oklahoma City, graduating in 1922. She was a violinist, an avocation that she is documented as having continued to practice, at least into her early years in Grand Rapids.

Following graduation, Marie attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri for two years, where she was editor of the college paper. Subsequently she moved back to Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma in pursuit of a journalism degree. Just before graduation, however, she left school, taking a position at the Daily Oklahoman, where she wrote an advice column.

Marie Jay came to Michigan in 1926, having accepted a job at the Lansing Capitol News, as editor of the women’s page. It is probably during this period that she did some modeling, as evidenced by a few photos in the collection. Also during this time, the paper was without a sports editor and the World Series was beginning. A man named Henry Carleton Cady stopped in on his way to a job interview in Pontiac, and was hired as sports editor. Carleton and Marie were married on September 1, with various sources in the collection giving the year of marriage as 1927, 1928 or 1929.

A newspaper clipping indicates that Marie was employed as a society writer for the Muskegon Chronicle. Then from 1928 to 1929 she worked for J.L. Hudson Co. in Detroit as a copywriter. From January 1, 1930 to June 1, 1932, she was employed as the Public Relations Director at her alma mater, Stephens College, in Missouri. The couple are found listed in the 1930 census for Columbia City, Missouri.

In the meantime, Carleton had begun working for the Grand Rapids Herald Muskegon Bureau in 1928 and came to work for the Herald in Grand Rapids in 1930. He held this position until the Herald ceased publication in 1959. Subsequently, he was an editorial writer for the Kalamazoo Gazette until his death in 1963.

Marie does not list employment from mid-1932 to mid 1935. It is probable that she was living with her husband in Grand Rapids. She may have done freelance writing. She also became active in community organizations. In June of 1935 Marie was employed by the Pantlind Hotel, Grand Rapids, as Public Relations Director. She held this position until June 1937, when she opened her own advertising agency at 212 Gilbert Building, with Pantlind as one of her accounts. Wurzburg’s Department Store may also have been one of her clients. It was during this period that she did promotional work for the Shrine, Red Cross and Community Chest. She also was a columnist for the Detroit News and editor of the Republican Digest. She is known to have written feature articles for both the Grand Rapids Press and Grand Rapids Herald. She is known to have been active in the Business and Professional Women’s Club and was Vice-President of the Zonta Club. Also in 1937 Marie ran as a candidate for the Board of Education in Grand Rapids.

According to a biographical sketch, evidently authored by Marie, in 1938 she was a representative from the U.S. to the International Press Conference in Stockholm and in Budapest. She spoke on programs in both cities. A news clipping from the Grand Rapids Herald, August 14, 1938, identifies Marie as the principal speaker at the closing banquet of the International Women’s Congress in Budapest. She was the national delegate from the Women’s Press Club of America. Another clipping has her as delegate from the American Federation of Press Women. While in Europe she traveled to London, Copenhagen and Berlin and had an opportunity to interview leading political figures, including Winston Churchill.

On her return from Europe she gave some 200 talks and lectures on European personalities. Additionally, she was named to the Speakers Bureau of the Republican National Committee.

Marie is known to have run the Wendell Wilkie campaign in Western Michigan in 1940.

The couple’s lives in Grand Rapids were interrupted by World War II, as they both enlisted for military service. Carleton was recalled to service from the civil reserves in May 1941. He had enlisted in the Army during World War I, while a student at Kalamazoo College. He was honorably discharged on November 26, 1918, with the end of the WWI, as a private. He served in WWII until December 1945.

Marie spent 1942 as the organizer of CAP, Civil Air Patrol for the State of Michigan, working for Tom Walsh, Chair, Board of Aeronautics. In 1943 Marie joined the WAAC (WACS), the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp. going through training in Des Moines, Iowa. After officer’s training, she was commissioned as a first lieutenant and assigned to work in public relations at Mitchell Field on Long Island, in New York. Near the end of the war she was transferred to Selfridge Field in Mt. Clemens, Michigan.

Carleton was initially stationed at Mitchell Field, New York, then for most of the war at Bradley Field, Connecticut, where he rose to the rank of Major. He was transferred to Selfridge Field toward the end of the war, where he continued to serve during his post-war Army Air Corp Reserve duties.

After the war Carleton and Marie returned to Grand Rapids. Carleton returned to the Herald and Marie began a position as field representative for the New York public relations firm of Dudly-Anderson-Yutzy, where she worked for fifteen years.

On September 5, 1963, Marie’s life changed dramatically with Carleton’s death from a stroke. Henry Carleton Cady had been born July 30, 1900 in Ingham County, Michigan, son of Menzo C. Cady, Jr. and Henriett Phillips Cady. He graduated from Mason High School in 1918. Unlike Marie, he had not studied journalism in college. After a brief time at Kalamazoo College, he began learning the journalism trade right after high school, working at several Michigan newspapers.

Marie left Grand Rapids briefly after Carleton’s death to become a political speech writer for Rep. Robert P. Griffin in Washington D. C. She returned to Grand Rapids soon after to become the director of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan. Through this program she brought famous politicians and foreign ambassadors to the city. She helped the Council improve its position and worked for no salary for fifteen years before retiring and settling down on Wealthy Street in East Grand Rapids. There she remained active into her nineties. She was living at the Veterans’ Home in Grand Rapids when she died March 7, 1996.