Week 28: Charlotte Boyd Chandler

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Town founder Dr. Alexander J. Chandler was married three different times.  His first wife, Julia Pope, left him for the interior decorator of the San Marcos Hotel after more than 20 years of marriage.  His second wife, Charlotte Boyd, passed away after they had been married for 16 years.  And his third wife, Rosa Bowling, outlived him by almost forty years.  The focus of this week’s column is Charlotte.

Charlotte Boyd was born in Illinois in 1886.  She grew up to be a popular singer, musician, and entertainer.  During World War I, she became a leader in the Liberty Bond efforts around Washington, D.C., playing an important role in all four major war bond sales efforts.  In this capacity, she became the first woman to fly in an Army Air Corps airplane.  The airplane event was widely publicized, and immediately upon landing after the short trip she was able to sell $5,000 worth of bonds. 

It was also during the course of her efforts to sell war bonds that she may have met Dr. Chandler.  One of the groups that was targeted for bond sales were prominent hoteliers.  By that time, the San Marcos was known across the country as one of the elite winter resorts in the nation.  Dr. Chandler, as owner of the hotel, may have been someone that the committee targeted as a potential war bond sales lead.  Even if they never met during the bond sale efforts, he likely saw a photograph of her in the November 2, 1918, edition of the Arizona Republican.

Dr. Chandler and Charlotte were wed on October 21, 1920, in the Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  The wedding may have been a surprise to many in the Valley who knew Chandler.  The first report of the wedding in the local newspaper was a column copied from the Washington Post announcing their nuptials.

Charlotte and Dr. Chandler spent much of their married lives together travelling the world and living in California.  The small amount of time they spent in Chandler was spent in a bungalow on the grounds of the San Marcos.  While in Chandler, Charlotte was a devoted member of several clubs, including the Garden Club and the Chandler Woman’s Club.

Charlotte was often sick.  In February of 1936 her doctor suggested that moving to a different climate might change her health for the better.  She moved to Los Angeles, but the change in climate did not help.  Her condition got steadily worse until she passed away quietly in her bed with Dr. Chandler at her side on June 14 of that year.  Services were held at the Little Church of the Flowers in Los Angeles.  Locally, the Chandler Woman’s Club organized a service in her memory.  Grace Robinson, the general manager of the San Marcos, gave the eulogy.  The club passed a resolution at their meeting that month extending to Dr. Chandler and Charlotte’s mother, Mary Jane Boyd, “our deepest sympathy in their sorrow.”  In memory of his wife, Dr. Chandler donated the old Christian Science Church building in Chandler to the club as their new meeting place.