She was known by her sister Mary's descendants as "Annie" or "Auntie" and by the Borden's as "Retta." She had the name "Bridget" in the 1860 US census. Just married at the time of the 1870 US census, her married name was Theresa Loretta Buckley.
Retta was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of John McConnelogue 1817-1902 and Mary Kelley 1820-1847. Her death record has the birth year 1847 and her gravestone inscription has 1846. Her mother probably died the same year as Retta was born, and then her father remarried Sarah Rogers 1826-1874 and moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where her two half-brothers, John M. 1848-1937 and Daniel 1850-1876, were born. The family then moved to Rock county in southern Wisconsin, where her three half-sisters, Sarah Engel 1853-1944, Mary Helen Lake 1854-1947 (my 2nd Grt-grandmother) and Catherine "Kate" Sullivan 1856-1935, were born.
She was married about 1870 to Dennis J. Buckley 1841-??, a Civil War veteran, who was working as a printer in Chicago. They had two sons, Gerald Mark 1871-1959 and Louis Lambert 1875-1926. By 1880, Retta was a widow, keeping house with her mother-in-law in Chicago.
Her life changed dramatically when she married Henry Lee Borden about 1886. He was recently divorced and the son of Gail Borden, who was the inventor of the milk condensing process and founder of the New York Condensed Milk Company, which was later named after the Borden family.
They lived at several residences from time to time. They had a home in St. Clair, Michigan on the Great Lakes, where they sailed a steam yacht, "Penelope." They had a 600-acre cattle breeding farm near Tonti, Illinois. They also resided in Florida, Chicago, Houston and New York City. On an extended duck-hunting trip in California, her husband, Henry Lee, died of a heart attack at the Van Nuys Hotel in 1902.
After Henry Lee died, Retta began spending her money on generous gifts for her birth family. Her step-mother had died in Iowa in 1874 and her father died in 1902, about six months before her husband died. She had one of her nephews, Frank Lake 1885-1976 from Nebraska, live with her in Chicago while he completed high school. She gave Frank's sister, Alta Lake 1889-1990, the choice of a diploma or travel and Alta chose to travel with her Auntie Retta. Her son, Bert, and her niece, Jennie May McConnelogue 1878-1963 were married in New York City and it was probably a large family event which she undoubtedly paid for. There were most likely other gifts that she gave to her other siblings, nieces and nephews.
Retta decided to build a house on her sister, Mary Lake's, farm in Nebraska and intended to use it to stay on her travels across the country. On her first visit she decided never to return and gave the house key to her sister, later putting the deed in Mary's name. There is a Lake family legend that Retta built two more houses identical, or at least similar, to Mary's house. One of these may have been on the farm near Tonti, Illinois.
By age 70, Retta was having the onset of dementia and was declared incompetent in 1917 and placed in the care of her daughter-in-law, Jennie. A judge set her living allowance at $25,000 per month, which was the same for Gerald, but Bert received $30,000, probably because of his six children.
According to the NY Times in April 1927, "Retta died at the residence of her son, Louis Lambert Borden, 35 East 51st St. Requiem mass in the Lady Chapel, St. Patrick's Cathedral, was on Monday, April 18 at 2pm. Funeral and interment were private." She was buried beside her husband, Henry Lee Borden, and many other family members there.
A book was written in 2018 which has more specific details, entitled "Retta's Milky Way" and available for purchase on Lulu.com.