Mary Crane Hone and the United Nations

On Saturday, the United Nations will recognize the thirty-ninth anniversary of International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a time to reflect upon the progress women have made throughout the world and recognize their achievements as well as their continued struggle. As the United Nations celebrates women from across the globe, the MCHS would like to celebrate a woman who once called Acorn Hall “home.”

Mary Crane Hone II gave up acting in 1937 and moved home in 1939 to Morristown, where she could look after her newly-widowed mother, Alice Castleman Hone. However, the former starlet soon found herself back at work. When war broke out in 1941, Mary was working at the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) New York Office. While working at the BBC as a secretary, she was able to attend three international conferences, including the United Nations (UN) Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945.

The UN Conference on International Organization took place in the spring and summer of 1945, with most countries signing the finished United Nations Charter on June 26, 1945. The UN Charter was the first international agreement to explicitly support gender equality. Although Mary Crane Hone II played only a small role at the UN Conference on International Organization, she seems to have been inspired by the idea of world cooperation. After the war, Mary moved to Washington, DC where she worked for radio commentator Raymond Gram Swing, who was a member of the World Federalist Movement (WFM). The WFM was founded shortly after the UN with the mission to work towards world peace and safety through various international organizations. Unfortunately, Mary had to leave Swing soon after being hired in order to move back to New Jersey and take care of her failing mother. Mary decided to continue her work with the WFM in New Jersey, where she worked as the executive director of the New Jersey branch of the WFM until her mother’s death in 1949.

Now one again able to travel, Mary moved to Amsterdam for eight months, where she continued to work with the WFM. She retired after these eight months and moved back to Morristown, where she settled into her ancestral home. During the early years of her retirement, Mary decided to try her hand at politics. In 1953, Mary campaigned for democrat Robert Meyner in his bid for Governor of New Jersey. His victory reception was held at Acorn Hall. Three years later, she campaigned for democrat Adlai Stevenson in his bid for President of the United States. She hosted meetings, facilitated workshops, and raised funds. Despite Mary’s hard work, Stevenson lost in a landslide to incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Mary came from a long line of ‘preservationists’: Acorn Hall, the family’s ancestral home, was maintained largely intact despite the residence of generations of family members. Excepting the upgrades of a central steam heat system, electricity, and indoor plumbing, the interior was kept lagely intact—and remains so even today. Instilled with a passion for preserving history, Mary was distraught by the plans for the construction of Route 287; a road that cut directly through hallowed historical groun. In order to protect the historic land which surrounded the planned area for Route 287, Mary chained herself and a dear friend, Elizabeth Cooke, to a bulldozer in protest of the new road. The road was built regardless, and finished in 1967, by which time Mary Crane Hone was involved with the Morris County Historical Society (MCHS). Mary was so dedicated to the preservation of Morris County that she donated her home to the MCHS in 1971. Mary lived out the rest of her days in New England, and passed on in 1990. The MCHS strives to keep her memory alive through stories, pictures, and oral histories of her life here at Acorn Hall.

More information on the United Nations International Women’s Day can be found at http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/history.shtml. To learn about the World Federalist Movement, please visit, http://www.wfm-igp.org/site/wfm-home. For more information about Mary Crane Hone, as well as the long line of stalwart women from whence she came, please stop by Acorn Hall on Sundays between 1:00 and 4:00pm or Wednesdays and Thursdays between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. We look forward to seeing you soon.