Mae Cadwell Rovensky

Sarah Mae Cadwell was born on October 16, 1880, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Martin Cadwell and Rowena Morgan Cadwell. She was raised in Hartford County within a family well established in civic, political, and social life during the late nineteenth century, and her upbringing reflected the expectations placed on young women of her class.

On February 14, 1900, she married Selden Bailey Manwaring of Waterford, Connecticut. The wedding took place at the Wethersfield Congregational Church and was reported as a formal evening ceremony attended by family and friends from across the region. After their marriage, Sarah Mae entered the world of her husband’s hotel and hospitality business. The couple lived in southeastern Connecticut, where Selden Manwaring served for many years as proprietor of the Oswegatchie House in Waterford, a seasonal resort operated by his family. They later spent winters in New London, and Selden eventually worked in New York City as manager of Mendell’s Restaurant in the Grand Central Terminal.

In August 1901, Sarah Mae gave birth to their only child, Philip, in Waterford. Her early years of motherhood coincided with growing strain in the marriage. By the early 1910s, the relationship had deteriorated, and Sarah Mae returned with her son to Hartford, where they lived with her mother. In March 1914, after several years of separation, she was granted a divorce from Selden B. Manwaring by the Superior Court. Contemporary reporting made clear that the divorce was final before any remarriage and that Philip remained in her care.

Morton F. Plant

Only weeks later, in May 1914, Sarah Mae married Morton Freeman Plant, a financier, yachtsman, and heir to the transportation fortune of Henry Bradley Plant. The wedding took place at Plant’s estate at Eastern Point in Groton, Connecticut. With this marriage, her life changed dramatically. Morton Plant formally adopted her son, who thereafter was known as Philip Morgan Plant, establishing him legally as his heir. Philip was raised within the Plant household, surrounded by wealth, property, and the expectations that accompanied one of the largest private fortunes in the country.

As Mae Plant settled into her new role, she and her husband divided their time between Connecticut and New York City. Morton Plant commissioned architect Guy Lowell to design a new residence for them at Fifth Avenue and East 86th Street in Manhattan. Conceived as an Italian Renaissance palazzo, the house was among the most architecturally significant private residences built on Fifth Avenue in the early twentieth century and reflected the permanence and ambition of the Plant fortune.

Morton F. Plant Mansion

During these years, Mae Plant became closely associated with one of the most famous jewelry transactions in American history. In 1917, she selected a rare double strand natural pearl necklace from Pierre Cartier’s New York showroom. Natural pearls of that caliber were then considered more valuable than diamonds and among the most coveted symbols of wealth. The transaction that followed became legendary when the Plant family’s earlier Fifth Avenue mansion was transferred to Cartier in a deal recorded for one hundred dollars, with the necklace included as part of the consideration. The building became Cartier’s permanent New York headquarters, and the necklace became one of the most celebrated jewels of the Edwardian era.

Plant Pearl Necklace

In 1918, Morton Freeman Plant died, leaving Mae a widow with a teenage son and immense responsibilities tied to a complex estate. His will placed her not merely as a beneficiary but as an active fiduciary. She was named as one of the executors and granted life income from one third of the residue of the estate, both real and personal, with full testamentary power over that share. She also received fee simple ownership of specific New York property. The estate included substantial institutional bequests and remained under structured trust and corporate management, giving Mae long term financial independence and authority.

As Philip Morgan Plant matured, he emerged as a wealthy sportsman and gentleman farmer. After graduating from Yale, he began extensive travel abroad, which led to a deep interest in big game hunting in Africa. He made multiple expeditions to East Africa, collecting specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. These included a lion group, a warthog group, and a colobus monkey group that became permanent exhibits. Philip designed a modern trailer used on his expeditions and filmed his travels in color, later using the footage in illustrated lectures he delivered for clubs and charitable benefits across the United States.

Colonel William Hayward

In 1919, Mae married Colonel William Hayward, a New York attorney and distinguished veteran of the First World War. Hayward had organized and commanded the 369th Infantry Regiment, later celebrated as the Harlem Hellfighters, for its service in France. He later served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1921 to 1925. During these years, Mae divided her time between New York and New England while Philip continued to establish himself independently.

In 1925, Philip married actress Constance Bennett. The marriage attracted intense national publicity and placed both Philip and his mother firmly in the public eye. The union ended in divorce in 1929. Philip later married Edna Dunham, also known as Princess Edna Carlton Dadiani, in 1934. That marriage likewise ended in divorce.

During the late 1920s and 1930s, Philip devoted himself increasingly to his Oswegatchie Farms estate in Waterford, Connecticut. There he developed one of the most notable private fancy poultry operations in the eastern United States and assembled a collection of hundreds of rare birds from around the world. The estate became a showplace visited by hundreds each summer. Although his rare birds formed one of the most extensive private collections of their kind, he took particular pride in his poultry, winning hundreds of prizes in major competitions and frequently refusing substantial offers for his champion birds.

Philip also played an active role in civic and cultural life. He was a member of the Oswegatchie Fire Department and participated in local political affairs, including seeking the Republican nomination for state representative. He sponsored the Oswegatchie Girls Fife and Drum Corps and later the Connecticut Yankees Boys Fife and Drum Corps, personally arranging programs, motion picture showings, and entertainments for local youth. He was affiliated with numerous fraternal, scientific, and social organizations, including Masonic bodies, the Explorers Club, and institutions associated with natural history and zoology.

Clarendon Court

By 1930, Mae and Colonel Hayward acquired the estate at 626 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Completed in 1904 for Edward Collings Knight Jr. and Clara Waterman Dwight and executed by architect Horace Trumbauer from an English design, the limestone mansion was renamed Clarendon Court by Mae and Hayward. The estate became the central residence of Mae’s later life. She converted portions of the former service areas into gallery space and housed a significant art collection there, some of which later entered major American museum collections. Clarendon Court later gained additional cultural notoriety as the home of socialite and heiress Sunny von Bülow.

Bust of Philip Morgan Plant (1901-1941)

Philip Morgan Plant died in June 1941 at the age of thirty nine after suffering from a heart ailment. He died in a New York hospital with his wife and his mother at his bedside. His funeral services were held at his mother’s Fifth Avenue residence, followed by Masonic services in New London. Through inheritance and reversion, Mae consolidated control over assets that had passed through her son, reinforcing her position as sole steward of major properties, investments, and personal effects. Philip was entombed in the family mausoleum at Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Colonel William Hayward died in 1944. Mae continued to reside primarily at Clarendon Court, remaining active in Newport’s civic and charitable life. Her long experience managing complex estates allowed her to maintain her properties and philanthropic commitments without interruption.

John Edward Rovensky

On July 22, 1954, she married John Edward Rovensky, a prominent New York banker and industrial leader who served as chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Mae Rovensky continued to live at Clarendon Court and remained active in charitable causes, particularly in support of medical institutions.

She died in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 21, 1956, one day before her seventy sixth birthday. Her funeral was held at Trinity Church in Newport. She was entombed with her son in the Plant Hayward Rovensky Mausoleum at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, Connecticut. After her death, her name was memorialized through philanthropic gifts that led to the construction of the Rovensky Building at Newport Hospital, completed in 1962.