That was in the summer of 1957. A year or so later, Mary Smiley Cuddihy was married again, to a man named Arthur M. Murray, Jr., a Catholic and in the Social Register, but no relation to any of the other Murrays, nor to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio family.
In the fall of 1961, Betsy Cuddihy Godbee was driving her ten-year-old Packard convertible along Deerfield Road in Water Mill. Failing to negotiate a sharp left curve, her car left the road, crashed through a rail fence and into two large oak trees. The impact of the crash was so severe that her body was thrown completely through the windshield of her car. She died two and half hours later in Southampton Hospital without regaining consciousness. Now Bob Cuddihy’s children—Robbie, Edith, Sean, Christopher, and a little girl named Michael Elizabeth—were orphans.
So the children, now aged seven to fifteen, were plunged into another custody fight, one which turned Cuddihys against Cuddihys. One of Bob’s brothers, Thomas M. Cuddihy, had been named executor of Betsy Godbee’s estate, and at the time of her death assumed custody of his nieces and nephews. But there were those in the family who questioned Tom Cuddihy’s qualifications to stand in loco parentis, including the children’s two grandmothers, Mrs. Lester Cuddihy and Mrs. Leonard Ryan.
The grandmothers—who, after all, as older ladies could not have been exactly overjoyed at the sudden prospect of five small children to care for—did at length agree to let Tom have custody, but only on one condition: the grandmothers were to have regular visitation privileges, in order to be able to check on how things were going. Then Tom Cuddihy did an astonishing thing. Without consulting or advising anyone, and in defiance of a court order, he shipped all five children off to England. The two older children were enrolled in Kilquahanity House, Castle Douglas, Scotland, and the three younger ones were placed in the controversial Summerhill School in Leiston, England. Summerhill, now defunct, was known as a school run by the children themselves; study was optional, and the child was his own boss. It was known as “the most revolutionary school in Great Britain,” where students were given “absolute freedom”—academically, theologically, and sexually.
Immediately Mrs. Lester Cuddihy filed an action against her son, demanding that his guardianship rights be revoked. She complained that not only could she not visit her grandchildren, as ordered by the court, but she could not even communicate with them. Of his mother’s suit against him, Tom Cuddihy commented matter-of-factly at the time, “Well, the only thing I know is that all of the kids are happy at the moment—we correspond back and forth and I hope to get over there by Christmas.” He had put the children in schools abroad, he said, because, “all things considered, the educational opportunities there are better both on my budget and because of the limited amount of money available to the children.”
Other Cuddihys joined the foray. John Murray Cuddihy wrote a lengthy letter to the judge who was hearing the case, denouncing his own brother as “erratic and unreliable.”
The battle dragged on for months and, meanwhile, the children, protected from all the family discord surrounding their future by the width of the Atlantic Ocean, began to enjoy the new surroundings in which their Uncle Tom had placed them. They had indeed been banged around a lot, and, after all of that, the sunny greenness of the British Isles must have seemed extraordinarily peaceful. Their letters home were happy and hopeful, even though one of the younger ones, Sean, achieved the unusual distinction of being the only child ever expelled from permissive Summerhill; he was placed in another English school. They did not want to come back to New York. And so, in the end, the grandmothers relented. Both women were getting older, and Mrs. Cuddihy was ailing. It became, in the end, a question of: if Tom Cuddihy, who wanted to be their guardian, was not permitted to be, who else was there who was willing or able to assume the job? The children, though they made occasional visits home, remained in Britain, where they became thoroughly Anglicized. Relations between Tom Cuddihy and the rest of his family have, meanwhile, remained somewhat cool. Today, Tom’s brothers and sisters do not know where Tom lives.
On July 31, 1970, the New York Times published an announcement of the marriage of Robert the Roué’s oldest son, Robert A. Cuddihy, Jr., to a Scottish girl named Elizabeth Bryden, from the village of Lockerbie, near Kilquahanity in Dumfriesshire where Robbie had gone to school. The bridegroom was at the time a student at the University of Edinburgh, and the couple were married in the Protestant Church of Scotland. Robbie had come back to the United States for a while and attended Portsmouth Priory, which pleased his grandmother. But his heart was in the Highlands, and he returned to graduate from Scotland’s Napier College. Like his great-grandfather, old Grandpa R. J. Cuddihy, he had become a publisher, having bought a firm called Islander Publications, whose fortnightly newspaper, the Islander, Robbie Cuddihy himself published from the island of Arran. He had also become active in the Labour Party, and edited the Red Paper on Education, a critique of the British educational system.
The Times announcement was unusual in that it printed a photograph of the couple’s wedding invitation, which was, as the Times put it with its usual understatement, “a move away from strictures of etiquette.” Printed in sepia on poster-weight paper, the invitation was eight inches wide and sixteen inches long, and it displayed a photograph of the bride and groom—Robbie looking very British with a walking stick, high collar, and big Windsor-knotted tie with a regimental stripe—posed, smiling and happy, on the steps of the church prior to the ceremony. What would Emily Post have thought? Clearly, Robbie Cuddihy is the uncommon product of an uncommon father, an uncommon uncle, and an uncommon family.
Our story ends on a note of grace.
Many years after her brother Bob’s violent death, Mary Jane Cuddihy MacGuire was at a New York cocktail party. There she fell into conversation with a young Catholic priest and, during the course of it, let drop the fact that her maiden name had been Cuddihy. The priest was thoughtful for a moment, and then asked her, “Did your family ever have a summer place in the Hamptons?” Yes, she replied, they had all had places there for years.
“Did you have a relative named Robert Cuddihy?” he asked her.
“Yes, he was my brother,” she replied.
“You know,” the priest said, “I rented a little place out there for the summer of 1957, on the Dune Road at Westhampton Beach. One night there was an automobile accident not far from my house. I heard the crash, and went out to see if there was anything I could do to help. The young man said he was a Catholic. It wasn’t till the next day that I learned from the newspaper that his name was Robert Cuddihy. He didn’t look to me to be in too bad shape, but, just in case, I administered the Last Rites to him.”
And so the lie, which she had believed for so many years to have been a lie, turned out, in the end, not to have been a lie at all. Before his death, Bob Cuddihy had been received back into the Church.
“I think it was St. Augustine who said that God always writes straight, but in crooked lines,” Mary Jane MacGuire says. “We may not always understand His ways, or His reasons, or His aims or plan for us at the time, but in the end it all becomes clear—clear as a bell. It’s one of the reasons why my faith is so strong, so indestructible. My faith has carried me through my husband’s death, Bob’s death, the death of one of my own babies, and the fact that one of my other children is retarded. When my baby died, I didn’t go to a psychiatrist, I went to a priest. I need a church whenever I know I’m wrong. I’d die if I didn’t have my faith and the Church. I could be King of England, and I’d die if I couldn’t have the Sacrament. That’s all. I’d just die.”
APPENDIX
Petition addressed to the descendants of
Thomas E. Murray
File No. 6561 - 1929
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
BY THE GRACE OF GOD, FREE AND INDEPENDENT:
TO: Daniel Bradley Murray, Katherine Murray McQuail, Anna Murray McDonnell, Julia Murray Cuddihy, Marie Murray Lufkin, Jeanne Durand Murray, Therese
M. Cummings, Rosamond Murray Byers, Joan Murray Boucher, Marcia Murray Cavanagh, Judith Murray Donovan, Thomas E. Murray, Jr., Marie Murray Harris, James Brady Murray, Rev. D. Bradley Murray, S.J., Anne Murray O’Neil, Jane Murray Sheridan, Francis Brady Murray, Joseph G. Murray, S.J., Peter Murray, Margot Murray, Jeanne Murray Vanderbilt, Patricia Murray Roche, John Francis Murray, Catherine Murray McManus, Constance Anne Murray (Sister Saint Joseph), Mary Elizabeth M. Coniff, Thomas Edward Murray, II, Herbert Lester Cuddihy, Jr., Jane Cuddihy MacGuire, John Murray Cuddihy, Robert Anthony Cuddihy, Thomas Murray Cuddihy, Michael Cuddihy, Ann Marie Cuddihy, John Vincent McDonnell Lufkin, Thomas E. Murray McDonnell Lufkin, Marie Murray Lufkin, Catherine McDonnell Sullivan, James F. McDonnell, Jr., Anne McDonnell Ford, Charlotte McDonnell Harris, Thomas E. Murray McDonnell, Charles Edward McDonnell, Gerard McDonnell, Genevieve McDonnell Bissell, Sheila McDonnell Cooley, Mary McDonnell, Barbara McDonnell Hennessy, Sean McDonnell, Margaret Mary McDonnell, Morgan McDonnell, Walter Cummings, III, Keith Cummings, Mark Cummings, Buckley M. Byers, Jr., Joseph M. Byers, Joan Bradley Boucher, Jerome H. P. Boucher, Jr., David Farrell Boucher, Frank Burns Cavanagh, Marina Murray Cavanagh, Carol Cavanagh, Edward J. Donovan, III, Rita Marie Murray, Maureen Anne Murray, Thomas E. Murray, III, Daniel Bradley Murray, George H. Murray, Marie Murray Harris, Anne Murray Harris, Basil Harris, III, Margaret Mary Harris, Thomas Murray Harris, Katherine Lewis Harris, Robert Harris, James B. Murray, Jr., Matthew Murray, Christopher Murray, Robert Murray, Stephen Murray, Andrew Murray, Paul B. Murray, Jr., Joseph G. Murray, Anne M. Murray, John Thomas Murray, Marie Barbara Murray, Stephen Joseph O’Neil, Peter Anthony O’Neil, Thomas I. Sheridan, III, Jane Frances Sheridan, Marie Murray Sheridan, Herbert Lester Cuddihy, III, Henri Andre Cuddihy, Judith Ann MacGuire, Beatrice Ann MacGuire, Julia Murray MacGuire, James Joseph MacGuire, Myles Phillip MacGuire, Thomas Murray Cuddihy, Jr., Jacqueline Adele Cuddihy, Patricia Murray Cuddihy, Robert A. Cuddihy, Jr., Elizabeth Cuddihy, Sean Cuddihy, Michael Cuddihy, Christopher Cuddihy, Diana Marie Lufkin, David Warren Lufkin, Bradley Moulton Lufkin, Marie Murray Lufkin, Suzanne Marie Lufkin, Heidi de Lourdes Vanderbilt, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Jr., Deidre Murray Roche, Robin Durand Roche, Hilary Somers Roche, Melinda Gray Murray, John Francis Murray, III, Thomas Bradley Murray, Helen Sayre Murray, Anthony Francis Conniff, Michael Andrew Conniff, James F. McDonnell, III, George McDonnell, Reece McDonnell, Louise Fayra McDonnell, Patricia Anne McDonnell, Michael Flanigan McDonnell, Meegan Aimee McDonnell, Stephen McDonnell, Charlotte Ford, Anne Ford, Edsel Ford, Richard L. Harris, Jr., Meegan. Harris, Laura Harris, Charles E. McDonnell, Jr., Mary Kathryn McDonnell, John F. Hennessy, III, Raymond P. Sullivan, III, Maureen Anne Sullivan, Sheila Anne Sullivan, Kevin Paul Sullivan, Karen Sullivan, Sheila Cooky, Leslie Anne Cooley, Richard Pierce Cooky, Jr., Anne McDonnell, Morgan McDonnell, Jr., James Ford McDonnell, Dirk Peter McDonnell,
SEND GREETING:
WHEREAS, Joseph Bradley Murray, Thomas E. Murray and Paul B. Murray, who reside respectively at the Pierre Hotel, Fifth Avenue and 61st Street, 686 Park Avenue, both in the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, and Red Ground Road, Old Westbury, Nassau County, State of New York, have presented their account as Trustees of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas E. Murray, deceased, lately residing at 783 St. Marks Avenue, Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, and a petition praying that their account as surviving Trustees of the trusts created by the terms of paragraphs SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH, SEVENTH and EIGHTH of the Last Will and Testament of Thomas E. Murray, deceased, may be judicially settled, that payments by them of income for the account of any minor made to his or her parent or to the infant himself or herself, as shown by the accounts filed herein, be approved, that payments made out of principal and income to the beneficiaries, as shown by the said accounts, be approved, that the said Trustees be authorized and empowered to file in this Court restrictions on the power of appointment now in their possession or which may hereafter be delivered to them, that they may be granted permission to resign as Trustees of such separate trusts as they may designate upon the termination of these proceedings, and upon the filing by said Trustees of an instrument in writing selecting their successors, pursuant to the provisions of paragraph EIGHTH of the said Last Will and Testament, and that they be allowed such single commissions as they may be lawfully entitled to receive on the principal of the various trusts embraced herein, and that the persons above named may be cited to show cause why such settlement and the relief above set forth should not be had.
NOW, THEREFORE, you and each of you are hereby cited to show cause before our Surrogate’s Court of the County of Kings, to be held in the Court Room at the Hall of Records, in the County of Kings, on the 30 day of April 1956, at 9:30 o’clock in the forenoon, why such settlement and the relief above set forth should not be had.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, we have caused the Seal of our said Surrogate’s Court to be hereto affixed.
WITNESS, HON. MAXIMILIAN MOSS, Surrogate of our said County, at the Borough of Brooklyn, in the said County, the 24th day of February 1956.
ALBERT M. LEAVITT
Clerk of the Surrogate’s Court.
INDEX
Albany, N.Y., 23–25
Albany, N.Y., 23–25
Albany Municipal Gas Company, 24
Albany Railway Company, 24
Altrocchi, Julia, 137–138
Amory, Cleveland, 150
Andiron Club, New York, 82–83
Antrim, Earl of, 55
Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, 36
Atomic Energy Commission, 202–206
Atomic energy control, Thomas Murray’s ideas on, 203–207
Audit Bureau of Circulations, 74
Austin, Christina, 258, 259
Baltimore, 150
Baltimore Cotillon, 230–231
Barat College, 242
Barry, John S., 150
Barrymore family, 278
Bartok, Eva, 99–100
Baruch, Bernard, 151, 152
Bassett, Hood, 96
Baudouin, King of Belgium, 244
Beaumont, Lord, 137
Beebe, Lucius, 136–137
Beekman, Barclay, 98
Bellestrem, Count Wolfgang von, 246
Belmont Park racetrack, 79, 80
Berengaria, 176
Berlin, Ellin Mackay (Mrs. Irving Berlin), 141
Bernstein, Theodore, 227
Beyond the Fringe (revue), 287
Blacks, sympathy for, 42–45
Blair, D. H., & Company, 114, 263
Blandford, Marquis of, 285
Blyth & Company, 262
Bolger, Ray, 277
Bondamen, 20–21
Bonynge, Mr., 140
Bonxano, Cardinal, 190–191
Borghun, Gutzon, 141
Boston, Irish in, 41–44, 185–186, 282
Boston Transcript, 42
Bostwick, A. C, 81
Bozell, L. Brent, 218–219
Bozell, Patricia Buckley (Mrs. L. Brent Bozdl), 218
Bradley, Daniel, 22, 25; family, 35; in politics, 30–37
Bradley, Julia Duane (Mrs. Daniel Bradley), 22, 35
Brady, Anthony N. (friend of Thomas E. Murray), 24, 152, 190, 198, 199
Brady, Genevieve Garvan (Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady), 189–199; and Cardinal Pacelli’s visit to U.S., 193–197; Duchess, title, 192, 244; second marriage, 198
Brady, James Cox, Jr., 192, 232
Brady, Nicholas F., 59, 189–193, 197, 198, 232
Brady family, 232
Brandeis, Louis D., 44
Braodeis University, 235
Brearley School, 241
Bremen, 176
Breslin, Jimmy, 278
Bronxville, N.Y., 179
Brooklyn Eagle, 21–22, 31, 34
Brooklyn Edison Company, 24, 59
Browning, Ralph, 96
Buchanan, James, 29
Buckley, Aloise (daughter of William F. Buckley), 220
<
br /> Buckley, Aloise Steiner (Mrs. William F. Buckley), 212–213, 219–220, 223
Buckley, Ann Cooky (Mrs. James L. Buckley), 208
Buckley, Carol (Mrs. Raymond Learsy), 208, 218, 220
Buckley, Claude, 210
Buckley, Edmund, 210, 211
Buckley, James L., Senator, 208, 214, 219
Buckley, Jane, 220
Buckley, John, 209–210, 219, 220
Buckley, Mary Lee (Mrs. John Buckley), 209–210
Buckley, Maureen, 213–214, 220
Buckley, Patricia (Mrs. L. Brent Boadl), 218
Buckley, Priscilla, 218, 220
Buckley, Reid, 214, 218
Buckley, William, 209
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