Week 46: Rosa Chandler

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As chronicled in previous columns, town founder Dr. Alexander J. Chandler was married three different times.  His first marriage, to Julia Pope, ended in divorce.  His second wife, Charlotte Boyd, passed away after several years of marriage.  Chandlerites were surprised when, on the morning of September 5, 1941, they saw on the front page of the Chandler Arizonan the headline “Dr. A.J. Chandler Weds in Denver.”

This third wedding came as something of a shock to Chandlerites, even those who knew Dr. Chandler well, as it had seemed after Charlotte’s death that he was destined to be single the rest of his life.  But the spry 81 year old had other plans.    He was married to Rosa Bell Bowling on September 2, 1941, at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.  Among the only witnesses to the small ceremony were his niece, Marian Chandler, and her son, Stephen Bowling. 

Though it’s unclear how long the two knew one another, they certainly had been acquaintances for some time.   Rosa was a friend of D. M. Ferry, who had been one of Chandler’s original backers.  She also spent many winters at the San Marcos with her aunt, a Mrs. Sheldon.  In an undated oral history, she said of her relationship with Dr. Chandler: “…I used to come out often and I knew Dr. Chandler very well…I always thought of him just as a friend.  I never realized that he was in love with me.” 

Rosa, like Dr. Chandler, had previously been married.  Her first husband died of a massive heart attack when their two children were very young.  In short order, his sister and parents also passed away.  Rosa’s parents had passed away several years earlier.  With no support, and an asthmatic son, Rosa moved west.  She spent the Great Depression going “riches to rags with two little children,” selling family jewelry and art to make ends meet.  She said of those years “I had never worked a day in my life and I was raised in the South and I didn’t know much.”

Dr. Chandler and Rosa spent six weeks honeymooning through the mountain states and the Pacific Northwest.  When they arrived back in Chandler in mid-October they moved into Dr. Chandler’s bungalow on the grounds of the San Marcos.    Rosa said that living at the San Marcos she “met the most fascinating people in the world.”  Between their social lives at the hotel and travelling to California in the summer, she never got to meet very many Chandler residents.  Rosa’s niece, Shirley Ann Overstreet, would later say that their lives at the San Marcos consisted of fancy dinners and evenings where they “would just dance, dance, dance.”

Dr. Chandler died nine years after marrying Rosa.  Under the arrangement with the hotel, Rosa was able to continue to live at the hotel for a year after his passing.  During that year she set his estate in order and then moved to Phoenix for a couple years before heading back to the South.  She met and married Wallace P. Wilson, and the two of them settled in Staunton, Virginia

Rosa often returned to Chandler to visit with the few Chandlerites she had gotten to know, including Maxine von Pohle and Barbara Bogle.  Though she lamented the decline of the San Marcos Hotel after she left Chandler, she eagerly anticipated its reopening in 1986 under new ownership, saying that she was confident it would soon become a fitting tribute to her husband’s “pioneer spirit.”  Rosa attended the 75^th anniversary of Chandler’s founding in 1987.  Through a deed restriction she had played a role in approving the new layout of the city’s central park.  When she arrived in town to see the new design for herself, however, she was disappointed.  She demanded that the City add fountains to the park in order to make it a place that people would gather and enjoy.

Rosa passed away in 1989 at the age of 91.  At the time, her friend Barbara Bogle fondly said “I can just see her bustling along the streets of Chandler.  She was a very proper lady.”  The proper Southern lady, descended from the Lees of Virginia, who had played such an important role in our city’s history, was laid to rest in Denver, the place where she had married Dr. Chandler.