Milford chronicle., 1962-01-19
Mrs. RidgeIy Died In
Dover Hospital On
Thursday Lost
Continued from page one)

| continued from page One)
spring and summer for 20 years.
Her last visit was in the sum
mer of 1861.
She worked for women's suf-
frage and was the president of
the Delaware Women's Suffrage
Association when women got the
right to vote in 1920.
She became the first president
of the Delaware League of Wo-
men Voters in 1921
She was one of the first sup
porters of the public library
movement in southern Delaware.
During World War l, she was
chairman of the Women's Library
Loan Committee of Delaware She
succeeded her husband, the late
| Henry Ridgely, as a member of
| the board of trustees of the Uni
versity of Delaware in 1941 The
university gave her an honorary
| degre of humane letters in 1857.
Devoted as she was to the col
onial tradition of Dover, Mrs. Rid
gely was the one who whipped up
opposition to an attempt by the
State Board of Health to build a
modernistic building in the midst
of the other state buildings of
Georgian architecture.
Last Thursday, Governor Ell
bert n Carvel issued a state
ment:
THE whole State of Delaware
mourns the passing of Mrs. Mabel
Ridgely, a great citizen, who was
beloved and admired by all who
had the good fortune to know her
"As a charter member of the
Delaware Public Archives Com
mission, she served her state su-
perbIy and continuously until the
day of her death. She also serv-
ed her community, state and ma
tion in many other distinguished
capacities during her long career.
Her many outstanding contri
buttons to our cultural life pro-
vides rich heritage to Delaware
and its posterity.
Truly, Mrs. Ridgely was one
of Delaware's great citizens and l
am certain it is the hope of her
many devoted friends that our
great state historic projects to
which she was so dedicated will
achieve successful fruition in
memory of her inspired leader
ship"
Mrs Ridgely was born in Wash
ington. d. c., the daughter of
Charles Fisher and Phillippa
LloyO and the granddaughter of
George p. Fisher of Kent County.
She was educated in private
schools in Baltimore and New
York; later she attended the art
school of the Metropolitan Mus
cum of Art and studied architec-
ture under Arthur Lyman Tucker
man of The BeauX Arts. Paris.
She married Henry Ridgely of
Dover in 1898 He was later to
become one of the prominent citi-
zens of Delaware-lawyer, civic
leader, and president of the Far
mers Bank
He died in 1910. Mrs. Ridgely
continued living in the old Rid
gely house on the Dover Green
one of the oldest in the state and
a landmark in Delaware history
Her membership in societies
was never perfunctory but always
reflected her personal and intense
interest in their programs: The
Colonial Danes, the Wilmington
Society of the Fine Arts, the
Friends of the John Dickinson
Mansion, the National Trust for
Historic Preservation, the Dover
Century Club and the Friends of
Old Dover, of which she was a
founder and an officer for long
time
She was also a member of the
Delaware State Portrait Commits
sion since 1887 and its president
most of the time.
AS one of the founders of the
State Archives Commission she
was responsible for the saving of
thousands of public documents
that might very we'll have been
lost. She was it's president for
many years.
Living as she did within shout
ing distance" of the old State
House on the Dover Green, she
not only promoted the cause of
having it restored from mid-Vic-
torian facade to the Georgian
style but she also literally watch
ed over the work done so that
nothing would go wrong.
This was almost so years ago
and she refused to allow the
workmeIf to rip off the mansard
roof of the State House until she
was sure every scrap of public
document was out of the attic
and preserved.