New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-10
DENIES He EVER
MARRIED WOMAN
Southerner Says Plaintiff Is a
Negro and Acted as His
HOuSekeeper.
UNION WOULD BE FELONY
Mrs. Richardson Asserts That
the Present Object of Her
Husbands Affections
Is an Interloper.

Denying that the woman who calls her
self Mrs Iva Mathews Richardson Is his
wife, Robert Kenyon Richardson. Of No.
SO Riverside Drive. makes the defence in
a separation suit that the plaintiff is a
neGress and that in the State Of Ten
nessee, OF which he is a native, the inter-
marriage of whites and negroes is a
felony Richardson says that the woman
Is the daughter Of slaves and that she
was his housekeeper and never mis- wife.
These allegations Mrs. Richardson denies
and produces a marriage license and q
marriage certificate purportng TO show
that they were married in Memphis m
1907. She also declares that her father
was OF French-Spandsh origin and that
her mother was the daughter OF an
Indian chief and a white woman.
Richardson has tried to pro 70 that a
marriage between the white I'D negro
races would be invalid in Tennessee and
that the plaintiff could never have been
legally his wife. But Justice Newourger
decided yesterday that the question OF the
marriage would have TO be decided by a
Jury and he awarded Mrs. Richardson 81
a week alimony and 500 counsel lees until
the case be tried.
Richardson is now living with another
woman, who, he says, is his only legal
wife. She was Miss Bessie Whaley, and IN
an affidavit made by her she declares that
when she came to Richardson's apart
ment as his wife the woman who Is now
suing appeared wearing an apron and
asked her what her orders were. The
exclamation of Mrs. Iva Richardson
whose former name was Bryan, as 70 the
nresence of Mrs. Bessie Whaley Richard
son In the house is that her HUSBAND
brought her there with her permission
after Richardson had given some urgent
reasons why he should take care OF her.
She saws that her husband told her ne
would harbor the woman he now Calls
his wife for g few months and then IN
duce her TO leave. Instead, the plaintiff
asserts, Richardson cvicted her and per-
ritted the other woman TO remain. She
also alleges cruel and inhuman treatment
The plaintiff declares that after their
marriage in 1907, in Memphis, she and her
husband lived in Cincinnati, Buffalo and
New Jersey. In 1909 they came TO New
York, where Richardson got JOB as
auditor Of the Eugene Christian Food
C,onpanv. of which he later became gen
eral manager and a director, with an In
te-est In the business. Mrs. Richardson
SAYS that she gave her husband articles
of iewelry. which he pawned, ano that
wien ne rose in the social scale ne Tor
got all about his affection for her and
nov. while her husband and the other
woman live in "sumptuous grandeur
she. who shared his hardships In his less
prosperous days, is in dire distress and
only the kindness of friends has kept
her from becoming public charge
Richardson says that he first met the
plaintiff in 1906. but that he never mar
RED her. He says that he married Miss
Whaley In July, 1910, and that the plain
tiff lived with them until January, lsll'
without ever asserting the rights OF
wife. James w. Osborne, the lawyer,
makes affidavit that he has known Rich
ardson since he was a boy, and knew
his father and mother, and that they were
white. An affidavit by J. L. McGhee, an
insurance man of Memphis, sets forth
that his aunt was the owner OF Mrs.
Richardson's parents when they were
slaves. and that her father was full
blooded negro and her mother was a
mulatto.