Elizabeth Muhlenberg Brooke was born on April 25, 1916, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a family whose name already carried history. Her father, George Brooke Jr., was a banker and steel manufacturer whose family roots were embedded in Pennsylvania industry. Her mother, Lucile Stewart Polk of Baltimore, descended from President James K. Polk and had survived the sinking of the Titanic four years before Elizabeth's birth. That tragedy would shadow the family name, though E

Abraham Kingsley Macomber was born 7 March 1875 in Morristown, New Jersey, the son of Henry Kirke Macomber and Amelia Montague Collerd. While still young he moved with his family to Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, where his father became known locally as Dr. H. K. Macomber. Kingsley grew up in a city that was expanding in the closing years of the nineteenth century, and later reminiscences recalled him as one of the boys of early Pasadena, first on El Molino Avenue

Joshua Seney Cosden was born on 8 July 1881 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was raised in modest circumstances and began working as a drugstore clerk while still a young man. In 1903 he married Ottilie Fowitz. Soon afterward he left Baltimore to seek opportunity in the oil fields of Oklahoma, arriving during the early years of rapid development that transformed small towns into centers of production. He began with manual labor, driving teams and working as a rigger, learning drill

Carolyn Mary Skelly was born on December 2, 1905, in Marion, Grant County, Indiana, the elder daughter of William Grove Skelly and Gertrude Elizabeth Frank Skelly. When she was born, her father had not yet reached the level of wealth that later defined the family. As his oil interests expanded, the family relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he built a large home that became their primary residence. Carolyn was educated at Mrs. Merrill's School in Mamaroneck, New York, a fashi