Evening star., 1939-08-03
Mrs. Soyre Will Be No Stranger
To Philippine Islands
Commissioners
Wife Spent Years
There as Child
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Mrs. FRANCIS b. Sayre, vile OF the
newly appointed American High
Commissioner to the Philippines,
will not 60 to her husbands new
post stranger to the islands or un-
sympathetic to their interests. She
celebrated her 14th birthday in
Manila when Cameron Forbes was
Governor of the Philippines and
her father. the late Col. William P
Evans, was Chief of Staff of the
Philippine Commission under Gen.
Duvau.
"The setup then, of course, was
very different from what it now is"
Mrs. Sayre says, but my memories
of my childhood days in the Philip
pines are very happy ones. Because
of them, am looking forward with
the keenest expectations to sharing
my husbands mission there and its
responsibilities"
Word that her husbands name
had been forwarded by President
Roosevelt to the Senate for conf1r-
nation came to Mrs. Sayre on the
train while she was en- route here
from New England trip.
Although they expect to rent their
Washington residence at 1883 Rock
wood Parkway for the duration Of
their Philippine sojourn, the Sayres'
will have an August vacation at
Martha's Vineyard.
Although Mrs. Sayre is a talented
artist in her own right, holding
membership in the National Asso-
citation of Women Sculptors and
Painters. and having frequently ex-
hibited in New York and Philadel-
phia, as well as here at the Corcoran
Art Gallery and the Arts Club here,
she has subordinated her interest in
painting to making the art of
home-making on the theory that
"all nature is art
More Important Things.
"My husband, our children, our
home and the work that my hus-
band is engaged in," Mrs Sayre
said recently, "are so much more
important than urge of mine to ex-
press myself on canvas, that I make
no effort to crowd my painting into
the routine of our Washington life.
My best contribution I feel, can
come through being the co-ordinator
for our family"
Ito attempt anything else would
be to have an irritating sense of
Illustration, perhaps, rather than
that sense of achievement, which is
a part of creative work when it is
evolved in the seclusion necessary
for its accomplishment" she added
Although the Sayre residence is
equipped with studio whose north
lighting is ideal from the artists
point of view, Mrs. Sayre, like Mrs.
Harlan Fiske Stone, has painted
only in the summer, when the obli-
cations of official life are less ex-
acting.
A visit with Mrs. Sayre in the airy
GOODNESS of the beautifully proper
toned drawing room of her home
makes one realize the wisdom of her
viewpoint. Ralph Graves, jr, her
son by former marriage, appears
on the scene with cocker spaniel
and tennis racket. Woodrow Wilson
Sayre, grandson of President Wilson,
and Junior at Williams College
next fall, stops to say he is of for
a swim.
One Sacrifice.
THE only great sacrifice which
will be attendant upon my hus-
bands great opportunity for service
in the Philippines" Mrs. Sayre
added, will be our separation from
the Sayre young people, as each is
in the midst of specific academic
preparation for career. But we
are taking great comfort in the
thought that with the flve-day clip
per service between the United
States and the Philippines, it will
be possible for us to come to them
and they to us in a comparatively
brief interval of time"
Francis Sayre, jr., we learned Is
studying for the ministry. As part
of his summer vacation he has al
ready included a California visit to
MIR. McAdoo and to his aunt, Mrs.
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, with Mon
tana and Texas as a part of his
itinerary. After he completes his
undergraduate course at Williams,
Woodrow Wilson Sayre is planning
to devote himself to a musical
career, and has taken a summer
school course at the Boston Con-
servatory Of Music. His uncle was
Nevin, the great American COM
poser. Eleanor Axson Sayre, named
for her grandmother, the first Mrs.
Wilson, has graduated from Bryn
Mawr and is taking a postgraduate
course at Radcliffe.
Mrs. Sayre's own two boys who
are younger than the Sayre young
sters, will accompany the Sayres to
the Philippines. Ralph A. Graves,
jur., who has been a student at Epis-
copal High School, thinks he may
follow in his fathers footsteps for
the choice of a career. He has been
accompanying'Mrs. Sayre's youngest
brother Capt. Jack Evans, U. S. A.,
detailed to West Point, upon
cruise up and down the New Eng
land coast on 44-foot sailing craft.
William P. Evans Graves, the most
youthful member of the group and
the name sake of Mrs Sayre's
father, has been attending Gordon
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