∼Elizabeth Jane Rucker Hadley BARKLEY is entombed here at Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. She is buried beside her first husband Carleton S. HADLEY who died in 1945.
Jane Anne Barkley has a daughter named Anne Hadley b. ~1932 in Missouri. (Married to W. A. Behrend)
(Paducah Sun-Democrat, Thur. August 11, 1949, p. 1)
2nd Daughter named Jane Hadley, b. ~1935 in Missouri. (Married to Matthew Perry, Jr.) [St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Sunday, Dec. 9, 1962)
Jane Barkley was cremated and may NOT have had a Tombstone marker.
Thanks for Fg Member #50076363 for the correct 1st name.
∼
Thursday, November 28, 2019: "td" FIND A GRAVE ID #47023898 Provided Jane Barkley's mother's relationship.
. Elizabeth Jane Ruckers father's name = Roy W. Rucker (b. ~1885 in West Virginia)
∼
Washington, D.C. UP - Mrs. Jane Barkley, whose romance with Vice President Alben W. Barkley made headlines 15 years ago, died early Sunday in her Washington apartment. She was 52.
Mrs. Barkley was found dead in her bed. A post mortem was performed and the coroner's ofifice said there was evidence of heart disease but a formal finding would have to await further tests.
Her 1949 wedding to the courtly Kentuckian climaxed a romance that was followed by much of America as the 72-year-old "Veep" flew from Washington to St. Louis, Mo. on weekends to press his suit for the hand of the comely 38-year-old widow.
Born Elizabeth Jane Rucker in Keytesville, Mo. the "Elizabeth" was dropped to escape the nickname "Lizzie - she was educated in Europe where her mother, Mrs. Estle Rucker, was a pianist and teacher.
Married at 19 to an attorney, Carleton S. Hadley, who died in 1945, she went to work as a secretary at Washington University in St. Louis.
After Barkley died in 1956, she returned to secretarial work and at the time of her death was administrative assistant to Oswald S. Colelough, acting president of George Washington University.
In the summer of 1949 the witty, affable Barkley and Mrs. Hadley first began to be seen together a great deal, but the public was kept guessing about their plans.
Only a couple of months before the November wedding, Barkley was asked whether he had popped the question. He said he hadn't because "I have no way of knowing whether I'll make the grade."
HE DID and the projected "small" wedding in St. Louis on Nov. 18 wound up with some 7,000 guests. In the following season the new Mrs. Barkley was the toast of Washington social circuits.
She was of Republican leanings before her marriage to Democrat Barkley, and was an ardent supporter of Wendell Willkie, the GOP presidential candidate against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. She once tried to convert her Democratic milkman by leaving him a note reading: "No Willkie, no milkie."
But she was converted after her second marriage and in 1950 campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 1950 races. In 1957, Mrs. Barkley wrote a book entitled "I Married the Veep" which told of her life in Washington.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc., funeral home in Washington with the Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, Senate chaplain, officiating. Burial will be private.
The Star Tribune
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Monday, September 7, 1964
Contributor of obit: Linda Mac (47919181)∼
Mrs. Barkley's
Rites Planned
For Tuesday
By Bill Powell, Sun-Democrat News Editor
Last rites for Mrs. Alben W. barkley--who as a charming widow from St. Louis became the wife of the "Veep" in the fall of 1949--will be held Tuesday at a funeral home in Washington.
Death came to Mrs. Barkley, 52, as she slept in her Washington apartment sometime Saturday night.
Her mother, Mrs. Ethel Rucker, who lived with Mrs. Barkley, discovered that she had died when she tried to awaken the vice president's widow Sunday morning.
The services will be at 2 p. m. Tuesday at Joseph Gawler's Sons funeral home. The body will be cremated, in keeping with Mrs. Barkley's wishes, and burial will be in Valhalla. Cemetery in St. Louis.
Veep' In Mt. Kenton
Mr. Barkley is buried in Mt. Kenton Cemetery, Lone Oak. In front of a massive but plain stone put up several years before Barkley died, his grave is beside that of his first wife, Mrs. Dorothy Brower Barkley, who died in 1946.
Mrs. Barkley apparently died of a heart attack. She had not been ill, and less than a month ago had taken a new job administrative assistant to George Washington University's acting president, Oswald S. Colclough.
She had been appointed secretary in the president's office of the university for two years. Previous to her association with George Washington University Mrs. Barkley had lived quietly near her daughters, Mrs. W. A. Behrend and Mrs. Matthew Per ry Jr., since the death of Barkley.
Mrs. Barkley long had been associated with university life. She became secretary to the chairman of the romance language department of Washington University, St. Louis, after the death of her first husband, Carle-ton S. Hadley of St. Louis, in 1945.
Later she was secretary to chancellor Arthur Holly Compton at the university. She left that position to become the "second lady" of the United States on November 18, 1949.
Mr. Barkley met Mrs. Hadley, widow of five years, at a party given for her by Mr. and Mrs. Mark Clifford in Washington on July 8, 1949. Her husband had been general counsel of the Wabash Railroad in St. Louis. After that time Barkley, traveling widely as vice president under Harry S. Truman, somehow managed to visit in St. Louis every time his path ran anywhere near the city.
A National Subject
Soon the press found out the reason and the romance of Mrs. Hadley and the Veep became a national topic.
Mrs. Barkley, still as Mrs. Hadley, made her first public appearance here in August of 1949. She was a "guest" of the "Veep" at dedication of Barkley Field, which was formally named for him that day.
The crowd attending the dedication which included unveiling of a tablet with Barkley'a pro file in bas relief on It and a big airshow drew one of the biggest crowds ever to gather in McCracken County.
It was conceded that more people came to see the pretty, black-haired widow than came to see the airshow. Roads were jammed in all directions, as the crowd gathered, and then as it left in the day.
Unveiled Statue
Her last public appearance In Kentucky was on Oct. 3, 1963.
She stood in the cavernous rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol at Frankfort and pulled a covering from a statue of the "Veep" the last statue which can be placed in the rotunda, because all the space Is gone.
She made no statement to the hushed crowd but later she talked at length with old friends of Barkley who came to her.
Earlier, she had been a guest of Gov. Bert T. Combs at a dinner in the executive mansion for her and other members of the Barkley family.
The wedding of Alben W. Barkley and Mrs. Hadley at a church in St. Louis was one of the highlights of 1949.
10,000 Showed Up
Seating capacity was limited, so only a few hundred invited guests actually attended the ceremony. But a mass of people estimated at 10,000 gathered out side to see the couple depart.
The well-wishers were so enthusiastic they almost over turned the couple's car when it moved away from the church.
The St. Louis chief of police, who inadvertently blocked the view of a woman spectator, was stabbed with a hatpin.
During the vice presidency of Mr. Barkley, Mrs. Barkley greeted crowds and performed almost on an equal footing with the great Barkley. She went everywhere with him, as he made frequent speeches and public ap pearances across the nation and in several foreign countries.
Even after the end of the magic years of the vice presidency, when the couple "retired" at Angles on Blandville Road, Mrs. Barkley appeared on the speaking platform with her husband in many area places -- Symsonia in Graves County, Shiloh in Hickman County and other "home" towns of the, widely-loved "Veep."
Busy Campaigner
Then in 1954 when Barkley decided, after long consideration, to run again for the United States Senate, Mrs. Barkley became a busy campaigner.
She was with her famous husband all the way through that dramatic campaign in which Barkley soundly defeated the well-liked Republican John Sherman Cooper and went back to Washington as a "junior" senator.
Barkley staged an old-time campaign, battling furiously as he ran "scared" In the commonwealth. He appeared on few platforms without Mrs. Barkley, who moved into the crowds with great charm and considerable' political acumen.
Mrs. Barkley was a gracious hostess making most of the plans and seeing to most of the details the day Adlai Stevenson came to Angles for a highly publicized meeting with Barkley as Stevenson was seeking the presidency in 1952.
The home on a hill on Blandville Road was overrun with invited and uninvited guests.
Mrs. Barkley didn't take an active part in the social life of Paducah; she declined membership in clubs and circles and usually was at spacious Angles when she and the "Veep" weren't traveling.
She Saw 'Veep' Fall
Mrs. Barkley sat near the "Veep" "the day he fell dead while making a speech at the mock Democratic convention at Washington and Lee University. She was among the first to reach his side near the overturned microphone, on the stage.
Soon after the funeral here a special train brought the "Veep's" body and Mrs. Barkley and others to Paducah -- Mrs. Barkley went back to Washington. She visited here a few times, not many, as the estate was being settled.
She came back on April 14, 1957, to unveil the Barkley monument at Jefferson and Joe Clifton Drive. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who went to Washington in 1913, the same year Barkley broke into the national scene as a congressman from Kentucky's First District, dedicated the monument.
Mrs. Barkley had only a brief moment in the office-seeking side of politics. She was backed by a sizeable faction as a candidate to succeed Sen. Barkley, but she never actively entered the picture, and the move fell by the wayside.
Mrs. Barkley, who finally succumbed to a heart attack, worked hard for the American Heart Association, an organization dedicated to research and treatment as the "Veep's" wife and then his widow. She won a national award for her work in 1954, soon after the "Veep" announced for senator the last time.
The award was for "charm, enthusiasm and genuine service to humanity."
Mrs. Barkley also is survived by a sister, Mrs. Gaylord Lyons of Washington; a brother, William Rucker of Tampa, Fla., and three grandchildren.
Colclough issued a statement mourning Mrs. Barkley's death.
"Her skill, graciousness and cooperativeness in working with all sections of the university will be missed by all of us. I speak f6r all of the university in expressing to Mrs. Barkley's family the heartfelt sympathy of her many friends in the academic community."
The Paducah Sun-Democrat
Paducah, Ky
Monday, September 7, 1964, p. 1∼
...Jane Barkley is no stranger to vicissitude. The circumstances of her life have changed often, sometimes happily, sometimes with abrupt sadness. But always, at the lowest as well as the highest moments, she has managed to retain warmth, charm and good humor.
What is her secret?
Disclaiming any secret, she said, "Trouble is part of life, and you're foolish if you rebel against what happens, become bitter or disconsolate. You are much better off -- to yourself and to
others -- if you can accept the sorrows that come to you with grace, rather than expect to slide through life with nothing but joys"
The St. Louis Post
St. Louis, Missouri
Sunday, December 9, 1962∼
Jane Anne Barkley has a daughter named Anne Hadley b. ~1932 in Missouri. (Married to W. A. Behrend)
(Paducah Sun-Democrat, Thur. August 11, 1949, p. 1)
2nd Daughter named Jane Hadley, b. ~1935 in Missouri. (Married to Matthew Perry, Jr.) [St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Sunday, Dec. 9, 1962)
Jane Barkley was cremated and may NOT have had a Tombstone marker.
Thanks for Fg Member #50076363 for the correct 1st name.
∼
Thursday, November 28, 2019: "td" FIND A GRAVE ID #47023898 Provided Jane Barkley's mother's relationship.
. Elizabeth Jane Ruckers father's name = Roy W. Rucker (b. ~1885 in West Virginia)
∼
Washington, D.C. UP - Mrs. Jane Barkley, whose romance with Vice President Alben W. Barkley made headlines 15 years ago, died early Sunday in her Washington apartment. She was 52.
Mrs. Barkley was found dead in her bed. A post mortem was performed and the coroner's ofifice said there was evidence of heart disease but a formal finding would have to await further tests.
Her 1949 wedding to the courtly Kentuckian climaxed a romance that was followed by much of America as the 72-year-old "Veep" flew from Washington to St. Louis, Mo. on weekends to press his suit for the hand of the comely 38-year-old widow.
Born Elizabeth Jane Rucker in Keytesville, Mo. the "Elizabeth" was dropped to escape the nickname "Lizzie - she was educated in Europe where her mother, Mrs. Estle Rucker, was a pianist and teacher.
Married at 19 to an attorney, Carleton S. Hadley, who died in 1945, she went to work as a secretary at Washington University in St. Louis.
After Barkley died in 1956, she returned to secretarial work and at the time of her death was administrative assistant to Oswald S. Colelough, acting president of George Washington University.
In the summer of 1949 the witty, affable Barkley and Mrs. Hadley first began to be seen together a great deal, but the public was kept guessing about their plans.
Only a couple of months before the November wedding, Barkley was asked whether he had popped the question. He said he hadn't because "I have no way of knowing whether I'll make the grade."
HE DID and the projected "small" wedding in St. Louis on Nov. 18 wound up with some 7,000 guests. In the following season the new Mrs. Barkley was the toast of Washington social circuits.
She was of Republican leanings before her marriage to Democrat Barkley, and was an ardent supporter of Wendell Willkie, the GOP presidential candidate against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. She once tried to convert her Democratic milkman by leaving him a note reading: "No Willkie, no milkie."
But she was converted after her second marriage and in 1950 campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 1950 races. In 1957, Mrs. Barkley wrote a book entitled "I Married the Veep" which told of her life in Washington.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc., funeral home in Washington with the Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, Senate chaplain, officiating. Burial will be private.
The Star Tribune
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Monday, September 7, 1964
Contributor of obit: Linda Mac (47919181)∼
Mrs. Barkley's
Rites Planned
For Tuesday
By Bill Powell, Sun-Democrat News Editor
Last rites for Mrs. Alben W. barkley--who as a charming widow from St. Louis became the wife of the "Veep" in the fall of 1949--will be held Tuesday at a funeral home in Washington.
Death came to Mrs. Barkley, 52, as she slept in her Washington apartment sometime Saturday night.
Her mother, Mrs. Ethel Rucker, who lived with Mrs. Barkley, discovered that she had died when she tried to awaken the vice president's widow Sunday morning.
The services will be at 2 p. m. Tuesday at Joseph Gawler's Sons funeral home. The body will be cremated, in keeping with Mrs. Barkley's wishes, and burial will be in Valhalla. Cemetery in St. Louis.
Veep' In Mt. Kenton
Mr. Barkley is buried in Mt. Kenton Cemetery, Lone Oak. In front of a massive but plain stone put up several years before Barkley died, his grave is beside that of his first wife, Mrs. Dorothy Brower Barkley, who died in 1946.
Mrs. Barkley apparently died of a heart attack. She had not been ill, and less than a month ago had taken a new job administrative assistant to George Washington University's acting president, Oswald S. Colclough.
She had been appointed secretary in the president's office of the university for two years. Previous to her association with George Washington University Mrs. Barkley had lived quietly near her daughters, Mrs. W. A. Behrend and Mrs. Matthew Per ry Jr., since the death of Barkley.
Mrs. Barkley long had been associated with university life. She became secretary to the chairman of the romance language department of Washington University, St. Louis, after the death of her first husband, Carle-ton S. Hadley of St. Louis, in 1945.
Later she was secretary to chancellor Arthur Holly Compton at the university. She left that position to become the "second lady" of the United States on November 18, 1949.
Mr. Barkley met Mrs. Hadley, widow of five years, at a party given for her by Mr. and Mrs. Mark Clifford in Washington on July 8, 1949. Her husband had been general counsel of the Wabash Railroad in St. Louis. After that time Barkley, traveling widely as vice president under Harry S. Truman, somehow managed to visit in St. Louis every time his path ran anywhere near the city.
A National Subject
Soon the press found out the reason and the romance of Mrs. Hadley and the Veep became a national topic.
Mrs. Barkley, still as Mrs. Hadley, made her first public appearance here in August of 1949. She was a "guest" of the "Veep" at dedication of Barkley Field, which was formally named for him that day.
The crowd attending the dedication which included unveiling of a tablet with Barkley'a pro file in bas relief on It and a big airshow drew one of the biggest crowds ever to gather in McCracken County.
It was conceded that more people came to see the pretty, black-haired widow than came to see the airshow. Roads were jammed in all directions, as the crowd gathered, and then as it left in the day.
Unveiled Statue
Her last public appearance In Kentucky was on Oct. 3, 1963.
She stood in the cavernous rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol at Frankfort and pulled a covering from a statue of the "Veep" the last statue which can be placed in the rotunda, because all the space Is gone.
She made no statement to the hushed crowd but later she talked at length with old friends of Barkley who came to her.
Earlier, she had been a guest of Gov. Bert T. Combs at a dinner in the executive mansion for her and other members of the Barkley family.
The wedding of Alben W. Barkley and Mrs. Hadley at a church in St. Louis was one of the highlights of 1949.
10,000 Showed Up
Seating capacity was limited, so only a few hundred invited guests actually attended the ceremony. But a mass of people estimated at 10,000 gathered out side to see the couple depart.
The well-wishers were so enthusiastic they almost over turned the couple's car when it moved away from the church.
The St. Louis chief of police, who inadvertently blocked the view of a woman spectator, was stabbed with a hatpin.
During the vice presidency of Mr. Barkley, Mrs. Barkley greeted crowds and performed almost on an equal footing with the great Barkley. She went everywhere with him, as he made frequent speeches and public ap pearances across the nation and in several foreign countries.
Even after the end of the magic years of the vice presidency, when the couple "retired" at Angles on Blandville Road, Mrs. Barkley appeared on the speaking platform with her husband in many area places -- Symsonia in Graves County, Shiloh in Hickman County and other "home" towns of the, widely-loved "Veep."
Busy Campaigner
Then in 1954 when Barkley decided, after long consideration, to run again for the United States Senate, Mrs. Barkley became a busy campaigner.
She was with her famous husband all the way through that dramatic campaign in which Barkley soundly defeated the well-liked Republican John Sherman Cooper and went back to Washington as a "junior" senator.
Barkley staged an old-time campaign, battling furiously as he ran "scared" In the commonwealth. He appeared on few platforms without Mrs. Barkley, who moved into the crowds with great charm and considerable' political acumen.
Mrs. Barkley was a gracious hostess making most of the plans and seeing to most of the details the day Adlai Stevenson came to Angles for a highly publicized meeting with Barkley as Stevenson was seeking the presidency in 1952.
The home on a hill on Blandville Road was overrun with invited and uninvited guests.
Mrs. Barkley didn't take an active part in the social life of Paducah; she declined membership in clubs and circles and usually was at spacious Angles when she and the "Veep" weren't traveling.
She Saw 'Veep' Fall
Mrs. Barkley sat near the "Veep" "the day he fell dead while making a speech at the mock Democratic convention at Washington and Lee University. She was among the first to reach his side near the overturned microphone, on the stage.
Soon after the funeral here a special train brought the "Veep's" body and Mrs. Barkley and others to Paducah -- Mrs. Barkley went back to Washington. She visited here a few times, not many, as the estate was being settled.
She came back on April 14, 1957, to unveil the Barkley monument at Jefferson and Joe Clifton Drive. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who went to Washington in 1913, the same year Barkley broke into the national scene as a congressman from Kentucky's First District, dedicated the monument.
Mrs. Barkley had only a brief moment in the office-seeking side of politics. She was backed by a sizeable faction as a candidate to succeed Sen. Barkley, but she never actively entered the picture, and the move fell by the wayside.
Mrs. Barkley, who finally succumbed to a heart attack, worked hard for the American Heart Association, an organization dedicated to research and treatment as the "Veep's" wife and then his widow. She won a national award for her work in 1954, soon after the "Veep" announced for senator the last time.
The award was for "charm, enthusiasm and genuine service to humanity."
Mrs. Barkley also is survived by a sister, Mrs. Gaylord Lyons of Washington; a brother, William Rucker of Tampa, Fla., and three grandchildren.
Colclough issued a statement mourning Mrs. Barkley's death.
"Her skill, graciousness and cooperativeness in working with all sections of the university will be missed by all of us. I speak f6r all of the university in expressing to Mrs. Barkley's family the heartfelt sympathy of her many friends in the academic community."
The Paducah Sun-Democrat
Paducah, Ky
Monday, September 7, 1964, p. 1∼
...Jane Barkley is no stranger to vicissitude. The circumstances of her life have changed often, sometimes happily, sometimes with abrupt sadness. But always, at the lowest as well as the highest moments, she has managed to retain warmth, charm and good humor.
What is her secret?
Disclaiming any secret, she said, "Trouble is part of life, and you're foolish if you rebel against what happens, become bitter or disconsolate. You are much better off -- to yourself and to
others -- if you can accept the sorrows that come to you with grace, rather than expect to slide through life with nothing but joys"
The St. Louis Post
St. Louis, Missouri
Sunday, December 9, 1962∼
∼Elizabeth Jane Rucker Hadley BARKLEY is entombed here at Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. She is buried beside her first husband Carleton S. HADLEY who died in 1945.
Jane Anne Barkley has a daughter named Anne Hadley b. ~1932 in Missouri. (Married to W. A. Behrend)
(Paducah Sun-Democrat, Thur. August 11, 1949, p. 1)
2nd Daughter named Jane Hadley, b. ~1935 in Missouri. (Married to Matthew Perry, Jr.) [St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Sunday, Dec. 9, 1962)
Jane Barkley was cremated and may NOT have had a Tombstone marker.
Thanks for Fg Member #50076363 for the correct 1st name.
∼
Thursday, November 28, 2019: "td" FIND A GRAVE ID #47023898 Provided Jane Barkley's mother's relationship.
. Elizabeth Jane Ruckers father's name = Roy W. Rucker (b. ~1885 in West Virginia)
∼
Washington, D.C. UP - Mrs. Jane Barkley, whose romance with Vice President Alben W. Barkley made headlines 15 years ago, died early Sunday in her Washington apartment. She was 52.
Mrs. Barkley was found dead in her bed. A post mortem was performed and the coroner's ofifice said there was evidence of heart disease but a formal finding would have to await further tests.
Her 1949 wedding to the courtly Kentuckian climaxed a romance that was followed by much of America as the 72-year-old "Veep" flew from Washington to St. Louis, Mo. on weekends to press his suit for the hand of the comely 38-year-old widow.
Born Elizabeth Jane Rucker in Keytesville, Mo. the "Elizabeth" was dropped to escape the nickname "Lizzie - she was educated in Europe where her mother, Mrs. Estle Rucker, was a pianist and teacher.
Married at 19 to an attorney, Carleton S. Hadley, who died in 1945, she went to work as a secretary at Washington University in St. Louis.
After Barkley died in 1956, she returned to secretarial work and at the time of her death was administrative assistant to Oswald S. Colelough, acting president of George Washington University.
In the summer of 1949 the witty, affable Barkley and Mrs. Hadley first began to be seen together a great deal, but the public was kept guessing about their plans.
Only a couple of months before the November wedding, Barkley was asked whether he had popped the question. He said he hadn't because "I have no way of knowing whether I'll make the grade."
HE DID and the projected "small" wedding in St. Louis on Nov. 18 wound up with some 7,000 guests. In the following season the new Mrs. Barkley was the toast of Washington social circuits.
She was of Republican leanings before her marriage to Democrat Barkley, and was an ardent supporter of Wendell Willkie, the GOP presidential candidate against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. She once tried to convert her Democratic milkman by leaving him a note reading: "No Willkie, no milkie."
But she was converted after her second marriage and in 1950 campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 1950 races. In 1957, Mrs. Barkley wrote a book entitled "I Married the Veep" which told of her life in Washington.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc., funeral home in Washington with the Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, Senate chaplain, officiating. Burial will be private.
The Star Tribune
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Monday, September 7, 1964
Contributor of obit: Linda Mac (47919181)∼
Mrs. Barkley's
Rites Planned
For Tuesday
By Bill Powell, Sun-Democrat News Editor
Last rites for Mrs. Alben W. barkley--who as a charming widow from St. Louis became the wife of the "Veep" in the fall of 1949--will be held Tuesday at a funeral home in Washington.
Death came to Mrs. Barkley, 52, as she slept in her Washington apartment sometime Saturday night.
Her mother, Mrs. Ethel Rucker, who lived with Mrs. Barkley, discovered that she had died when she tried to awaken the vice president's widow Sunday morning.
The services will be at 2 p. m. Tuesday at Joseph Gawler's Sons funeral home. The body will be cremated, in keeping with Mrs. Barkley's wishes, and burial will be in Valhalla. Cemetery in St. Louis.
Veep' In Mt. Kenton
Mr. Barkley is buried in Mt. Kenton Cemetery, Lone Oak. In front of a massive but plain stone put up several years before Barkley died, his grave is beside that of his first wife, Mrs. Dorothy Brower Barkley, who died in 1946.
Mrs. Barkley apparently died of a heart attack. She had not been ill, and less than a month ago had taken a new job administrative assistant to George Washington University's acting president, Oswald S. Colclough.
She had been appointed secretary in the president's office of the university for two years. Previous to her association with George Washington University Mrs. Barkley had lived quietly near her daughters, Mrs. W. A. Behrend and Mrs. Matthew Per ry Jr., since the death of Barkley.
Mrs. Barkley long had been associated with university life. She became secretary to the chairman of the romance language department of Washington University, St. Louis, after the death of her first husband, Carle-ton S. Hadley of St. Louis, in 1945.
Later she was secretary to chancellor Arthur Holly Compton at the university. She left that position to become the "second lady" of the United States on November 18, 1949.
Mr. Barkley met Mrs. Hadley, widow of five years, at a party given for her by Mr. and Mrs. Mark Clifford in Washington on July 8, 1949. Her husband had been general counsel of the Wabash Railroad in St. Louis. After that time Barkley, traveling widely as vice president under Harry S. Truman, somehow managed to visit in St. Louis every time his path ran anywhere near the city.
A National Subject
Soon the press found out the reason and the romance of Mrs. Hadley and the Veep became a national topic.
Mrs. Barkley, still as Mrs. Hadley, made her first public appearance here in August of 1949. She was a "guest" of the "Veep" at dedication of Barkley Field, which was formally named for him that day.
The crowd attending the dedication which included unveiling of a tablet with Barkley'a pro file in bas relief on It and a big airshow drew one of the biggest crowds ever to gather in McCracken County.
It was conceded that more people came to see the pretty, black-haired widow than came to see the airshow. Roads were jammed in all directions, as the crowd gathered, and then as it left in the day.
Unveiled Statue
Her last public appearance In Kentucky was on Oct. 3, 1963.
She stood in the cavernous rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol at Frankfort and pulled a covering from a statue of the "Veep" the last statue which can be placed in the rotunda, because all the space Is gone.
She made no statement to the hushed crowd but later she talked at length with old friends of Barkley who came to her.
Earlier, she had been a guest of Gov. Bert T. Combs at a dinner in the executive mansion for her and other members of the Barkley family.
The wedding of Alben W. Barkley and Mrs. Hadley at a church in St. Louis was one of the highlights of 1949.
10,000 Showed Up
Seating capacity was limited, so only a few hundred invited guests actually attended the ceremony. But a mass of people estimated at 10,000 gathered out side to see the couple depart.
The well-wishers were so enthusiastic they almost over turned the couple's car when it moved away from the church.
The St. Louis chief of police, who inadvertently blocked the view of a woman spectator, was stabbed with a hatpin.
During the vice presidency of Mr. Barkley, Mrs. Barkley greeted crowds and performed almost on an equal footing with the great Barkley. She went everywhere with him, as he made frequent speeches and public ap pearances across the nation and in several foreign countries.
Even after the end of the magic years of the vice presidency, when the couple "retired" at Angles on Blandville Road, Mrs. Barkley appeared on the speaking platform with her husband in many area places -- Symsonia in Graves County, Shiloh in Hickman County and other "home" towns of the, widely-loved "Veep."
Busy Campaigner
Then in 1954 when Barkley decided, after long consideration, to run again for the United States Senate, Mrs. Barkley became a busy campaigner.
She was with her famous husband all the way through that dramatic campaign in which Barkley soundly defeated the well-liked Republican John Sherman Cooper and went back to Washington as a "junior" senator.
Barkley staged an old-time campaign, battling furiously as he ran "scared" In the commonwealth. He appeared on few platforms without Mrs. Barkley, who moved into the crowds with great charm and considerable' political acumen.
Mrs. Barkley was a gracious hostess making most of the plans and seeing to most of the details the day Adlai Stevenson came to Angles for a highly publicized meeting with Barkley as Stevenson was seeking the presidency in 1952.
The home on a hill on Blandville Road was overrun with invited and uninvited guests.
Mrs. Barkley didn't take an active part in the social life of Paducah; she declined membership in clubs and circles and usually was at spacious Angles when she and the "Veep" weren't traveling.
She Saw 'Veep' Fall
Mrs. Barkley sat near the "Veep" "the day he fell dead while making a speech at the mock Democratic convention at Washington and Lee University. She was among the first to reach his side near the overturned microphone, on the stage.
Soon after the funeral here a special train brought the "Veep's" body and Mrs. Barkley and others to Paducah -- Mrs. Barkley went back to Washington. She visited here a few times, not many, as the estate was being settled.
She came back on April 14, 1957, to unveil the Barkley monument at Jefferson and Joe Clifton Drive. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who went to Washington in 1913, the same year Barkley broke into the national scene as a congressman from Kentucky's First District, dedicated the monument.
Mrs. Barkley had only a brief moment in the office-seeking side of politics. She was backed by a sizeable faction as a candidate to succeed Sen. Barkley, but she never actively entered the picture, and the move fell by the wayside.
Mrs. Barkley, who finally succumbed to a heart attack, worked hard for the American Heart Association, an organization dedicated to research and treatment as the "Veep's" wife and then his widow. She won a national award for her work in 1954, soon after the "Veep" announced for senator the last time.
The award was for "charm, enthusiasm and genuine service to humanity."
Mrs. Barkley also is survived by a sister, Mrs. Gaylord Lyons of Washington; a brother, William Rucker of Tampa, Fla., and three grandchildren.
Colclough issued a statement mourning Mrs. Barkley's death.
"Her skill, graciousness and cooperativeness in working with all sections of the university will be missed by all of us. I speak f6r all of the university in expressing to Mrs. Barkley's family the heartfelt sympathy of her many friends in the academic community."
The Paducah Sun-Democrat
Paducah, Ky
Monday, September 7, 1964, p. 1∼
...Jane Barkley is no stranger to vicissitude. The circumstances of her life have changed often, sometimes happily, sometimes with abrupt sadness. But always, at the lowest as well as the highest moments, she has managed to retain warmth, charm and good humor.
What is her secret?
Disclaiming any secret, she said, "Trouble is part of life, and you're foolish if you rebel against what happens, become bitter or disconsolate. You are much better off -- to yourself and to
others -- if you can accept the sorrows that come to you with grace, rather than expect to slide through life with nothing but joys"
The St. Louis Post
St. Louis, Missouri
Sunday, December 9, 1962∼
Jane Anne Barkley has a daughter named Anne Hadley b. ~1932 in Missouri. (Married to W. A. Behrend)
(Paducah Sun-Democrat, Thur. August 11, 1949, p. 1)
2nd Daughter named Jane Hadley, b. ~1935 in Missouri. (Married to Matthew Perry, Jr.) [St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Sunday, Dec. 9, 1962)
Jane Barkley was cremated and may NOT have had a Tombstone marker.
Thanks for Fg Member #50076363 for the correct 1st name.
∼
Thursday, November 28, 2019: "td" FIND A GRAVE ID #47023898 Provided Jane Barkley's mother's relationship.
. Elizabeth Jane Ruckers father's name = Roy W. Rucker (b. ~1885 in West Virginia)
∼
Washington, D.C. UP - Mrs. Jane Barkley, whose romance with Vice President Alben W. Barkley made headlines 15 years ago, died early Sunday in her Washington apartment. She was 52.
Mrs. Barkley was found dead in her bed. A post mortem was performed and the coroner's ofifice said there was evidence of heart disease but a formal finding would have to await further tests.
Her 1949 wedding to the courtly Kentuckian climaxed a romance that was followed by much of America as the 72-year-old "Veep" flew from Washington to St. Louis, Mo. on weekends to press his suit for the hand of the comely 38-year-old widow.
Born Elizabeth Jane Rucker in Keytesville, Mo. the "Elizabeth" was dropped to escape the nickname "Lizzie - she was educated in Europe where her mother, Mrs. Estle Rucker, was a pianist and teacher.
Married at 19 to an attorney, Carleton S. Hadley, who died in 1945, she went to work as a secretary at Washington University in St. Louis.
After Barkley died in 1956, she returned to secretarial work and at the time of her death was administrative assistant to Oswald S. Colelough, acting president of George Washington University.
In the summer of 1949 the witty, affable Barkley and Mrs. Hadley first began to be seen together a great deal, but the public was kept guessing about their plans.
Only a couple of months before the November wedding, Barkley was asked whether he had popped the question. He said he hadn't because "I have no way of knowing whether I'll make the grade."
HE DID and the projected "small" wedding in St. Louis on Nov. 18 wound up with some 7,000 guests. In the following season the new Mrs. Barkley was the toast of Washington social circuits.
She was of Republican leanings before her marriage to Democrat Barkley, and was an ardent supporter of Wendell Willkie, the GOP presidential candidate against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. She once tried to convert her Democratic milkman by leaving him a note reading: "No Willkie, no milkie."
But she was converted after her second marriage and in 1950 campaigned for Democratic candidates in the 1950 races. In 1957, Mrs. Barkley wrote a book entitled "I Married the Veep" which told of her life in Washington.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc., funeral home in Washington with the Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, Senate chaplain, officiating. Burial will be private.
The Star Tribune
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Monday, September 7, 1964
Contributor of obit: Linda Mac (47919181)∼
Mrs. Barkley's
Rites Planned
For Tuesday
By Bill Powell, Sun-Democrat News Editor
Last rites for Mrs. Alben W. barkley--who as a charming widow from St. Louis became the wife of the "Veep" in the fall of 1949--will be held Tuesday at a funeral home in Washington.
Death came to Mrs. Barkley, 52, as she slept in her Washington apartment sometime Saturday night.
Her mother, Mrs. Ethel Rucker, who lived with Mrs. Barkley, discovered that she had died when she tried to awaken the vice president's widow Sunday morning.
The services will be at 2 p. m. Tuesday at Joseph Gawler's Sons funeral home. The body will be cremated, in keeping with Mrs. Barkley's wishes, and burial will be in Valhalla. Cemetery in St. Louis.
Veep' In Mt. Kenton
Mr. Barkley is buried in Mt. Kenton Cemetery, Lone Oak. In front of a massive but plain stone put up several years before Barkley died, his grave is beside that of his first wife, Mrs. Dorothy Brower Barkley, who died in 1946.
Mrs. Barkley apparently died of a heart attack. She had not been ill, and less than a month ago had taken a new job administrative assistant to George Washington University's acting president, Oswald S. Colclough.
She had been appointed secretary in the president's office of the university for two years. Previous to her association with George Washington University Mrs. Barkley had lived quietly near her daughters, Mrs. W. A. Behrend and Mrs. Matthew Per ry Jr., since the death of Barkley.
Mrs. Barkley long had been associated with university life. She became secretary to the chairman of the romance language department of Washington University, St. Louis, after the death of her first husband, Carle-ton S. Hadley of St. Louis, in 1945.
Later she was secretary to chancellor Arthur Holly Compton at the university. She left that position to become the "second lady" of the United States on November 18, 1949.
Mr. Barkley met Mrs. Hadley, widow of five years, at a party given for her by Mr. and Mrs. Mark Clifford in Washington on July 8, 1949. Her husband had been general counsel of the Wabash Railroad in St. Louis. After that time Barkley, traveling widely as vice president under Harry S. Truman, somehow managed to visit in St. Louis every time his path ran anywhere near the city.
A National Subject
Soon the press found out the reason and the romance of Mrs. Hadley and the Veep became a national topic.
Mrs. Barkley, still as Mrs. Hadley, made her first public appearance here in August of 1949. She was a "guest" of the "Veep" at dedication of Barkley Field, which was formally named for him that day.
The crowd attending the dedication which included unveiling of a tablet with Barkley'a pro file in bas relief on It and a big airshow drew one of the biggest crowds ever to gather in McCracken County.
It was conceded that more people came to see the pretty, black-haired widow than came to see the airshow. Roads were jammed in all directions, as the crowd gathered, and then as it left in the day.
Unveiled Statue
Her last public appearance In Kentucky was on Oct. 3, 1963.
She stood in the cavernous rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol at Frankfort and pulled a covering from a statue of the "Veep" the last statue which can be placed in the rotunda, because all the space Is gone.
She made no statement to the hushed crowd but later she talked at length with old friends of Barkley who came to her.
Earlier, she had been a guest of Gov. Bert T. Combs at a dinner in the executive mansion for her and other members of the Barkley family.
The wedding of Alben W. Barkley and Mrs. Hadley at a church in St. Louis was one of the highlights of 1949.
10,000 Showed Up
Seating capacity was limited, so only a few hundred invited guests actually attended the ceremony. But a mass of people estimated at 10,000 gathered out side to see the couple depart.
The well-wishers were so enthusiastic they almost over turned the couple's car when it moved away from the church.
The St. Louis chief of police, who inadvertently blocked the view of a woman spectator, was stabbed with a hatpin.
During the vice presidency of Mr. Barkley, Mrs. Barkley greeted crowds and performed almost on an equal footing with the great Barkley. She went everywhere with him, as he made frequent speeches and public ap pearances across the nation and in several foreign countries.
Even after the end of the magic years of the vice presidency, when the couple "retired" at Angles on Blandville Road, Mrs. Barkley appeared on the speaking platform with her husband in many area places -- Symsonia in Graves County, Shiloh in Hickman County and other "home" towns of the, widely-loved "Veep."
Busy Campaigner
Then in 1954 when Barkley decided, after long consideration, to run again for the United States Senate, Mrs. Barkley became a busy campaigner.
She was with her famous husband all the way through that dramatic campaign in which Barkley soundly defeated the well-liked Republican John Sherman Cooper and went back to Washington as a "junior" senator.
Barkley staged an old-time campaign, battling furiously as he ran "scared" In the commonwealth. He appeared on few platforms without Mrs. Barkley, who moved into the crowds with great charm and considerable' political acumen.
Mrs. Barkley was a gracious hostess making most of the plans and seeing to most of the details the day Adlai Stevenson came to Angles for a highly publicized meeting with Barkley as Stevenson was seeking the presidency in 1952.
The home on a hill on Blandville Road was overrun with invited and uninvited guests.
Mrs. Barkley didn't take an active part in the social life of Paducah; she declined membership in clubs and circles and usually was at spacious Angles when she and the "Veep" weren't traveling.
She Saw 'Veep' Fall
Mrs. Barkley sat near the "Veep" "the day he fell dead while making a speech at the mock Democratic convention at Washington and Lee University. She was among the first to reach his side near the overturned microphone, on the stage.
Soon after the funeral here a special train brought the "Veep's" body and Mrs. Barkley and others to Paducah -- Mrs. Barkley went back to Washington. She visited here a few times, not many, as the estate was being settled.
She came back on April 14, 1957, to unveil the Barkley monument at Jefferson and Joe Clifton Drive. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who went to Washington in 1913, the same year Barkley broke into the national scene as a congressman from Kentucky's First District, dedicated the monument.
Mrs. Barkley had only a brief moment in the office-seeking side of politics. She was backed by a sizeable faction as a candidate to succeed Sen. Barkley, but she never actively entered the picture, and the move fell by the wayside.
Mrs. Barkley, who finally succumbed to a heart attack, worked hard for the American Heart Association, an organization dedicated to research and treatment as the "Veep's" wife and then his widow. She won a national award for her work in 1954, soon after the "Veep" announced for senator the last time.
The award was for "charm, enthusiasm and genuine service to humanity."
Mrs. Barkley also is survived by a sister, Mrs. Gaylord Lyons of Washington; a brother, William Rucker of Tampa, Fla., and three grandchildren.
Colclough issued a statement mourning Mrs. Barkley's death.
"Her skill, graciousness and cooperativeness in working with all sections of the university will be missed by all of us. I speak f6r all of the university in expressing to Mrs. Barkley's family the heartfelt sympathy of her many friends in the academic community."
The Paducah Sun-Democrat
Paducah, Ky
Monday, September 7, 1964, p. 1∼
...Jane Barkley is no stranger to vicissitude. The circumstances of her life have changed often, sometimes happily, sometimes with abrupt sadness. But always, at the lowest as well as the highest moments, she has managed to retain warmth, charm and good humor.
What is her secret?
Disclaiming any secret, she said, "Trouble is part of life, and you're foolish if you rebel against what happens, become bitter or disconsolate. You are much better off -- to yourself and to
others -- if you can accept the sorrows that come to you with grace, rather than expect to slide through life with nothing but joys"
The St. Louis Post
St. Louis, Missouri
Sunday, December 9, 1962∼
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
