Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-05-13
MOCK MARRIAGE
LOST HER DOVER
Mary Lee Turpin Was Not At
lanta Hotel Mans Legal
Wife, Court Declares.

DUBUQUE IOWA, May 1S.-The
s250,000 fortune of. the late F. M Tur-
pin, whose hotel interests in Atlanta
We're large, will not be divided to give
Mary Lee Turpin Widows share.
Circuit Court Judge Benson has put
forth decision declaring that Mary
Lee Turpin was never legally married
to the hotel man, i'm spite of the fact
that she had lived with him in New
York and Chicago. :
The case was one in which one Of
the oldest families of Georgia was con-
cerned. September 2l, 1910. Mary Lee
Turpin filed a petition with the dis
trict court asking for a divorce from
Turpin, then proprietor of the Julien
hotel of this city, and also interested
in hotel property at Macon Ga. Knox
Vile Tenn, and Atlanta. Ca
Before service could be obtained on
the defendant he died at the home of
relatives at Macon. A few days after
his death, the woman. claiming to be
the widow, had an administrator of
the estate appointed This was H. j.
Grace, of Dubuque, a clerk in the office
of the clerk of the district court.
Mother Fought Suit
March g. 1911, the woman applied to
the court for. a,widow's allowance. Suit
was resisted by decedent's mother, who
allowance was not the widow of her
son, never had been his wife. and that
he never had intended to make her his
wife
In the trial. attorneys from Macon
and Chicago assisted the best local
lawyers. Witnesses were brought from
New York. Chicago Macon Atlanta and
Jacksonville, Fla.
In her suit for divorce the plaintiff
alleged she and Turpin were married
in New York city in September 1908,
and that they lived at the Hotel Girard
as husband and wife. She alleged that
the suit never came to trial before the
death of the defendant
In the trial under the petition for a
widows allowance the plaintiff said
she was 80 years old; that she was born
at Brunswick Ga At the age of about
IA she was married to James c. Smith,
LOCOMOTIVE eng lHeeI. III IJUf, SdlQ he
was killed in railroad accident.
After that the plaintiff alleged she
worked for Captain James Mckay, own
er and operator Of coasting vessels. as
stenographer bookkeper and confden-
tiaI secretary.
Claimed "Mock" Marriage.
She was called to Jacksonville by the
illness of a brother. and there met Tur-
pin From that time on they met fire.
quently and eventually became engaged
to marry the plaintiff said. Early in
Septemberr1 9eSe added ~Ilnrpin sent
her telegram 70 Journey to New York.
where they, were to sbe married. She
made the trip met him in Jersey City,
went to an office building in New York
city. was married by a man she sup
posed was a civil officer. Then the
two went to0t+e1 Hotel Girard
She showed IN court pages Of the no
tel register containing their names.
In the spring of 1910 at the Majestic
hotel in Chicago the woman said Tur-
pin told her they were not married,
and that the ceremony was a mock one.
Then she tried to- commit suicide by
drinking water which had been poured
over matches. The house physician
saved her life.
On the part of the defense 1T was not
denied that the plaintiff and Turpin had
lived as husband and wife at varied
places, but it was denied that they
were ever married.