The Big Four were a quartet of debutantes in the Chicago social scene during World War I who viewed themselves as "the four most attractive and socially desirable young women in Chicago."[1] The quartet consisted of Ginevra King, Edith Cummings, Courtney Letts, and Margaret Carry.[2][3] The Big Four—a name they coined and bestowed upon themselves—were the preeminent socialites of their era, and each wore a rose-gold pinkie ring with phrase, "The Big Four 1914," engraved on the inner band.[3]
Each of the Big Four was born around the turn of the century and came from a wealthy family in the Chicago area. Raised in luxury on their family's sprawling estates in Lake Forest,[4][5][6] the quartet enjoyed carefree lives consisting of polo, tennis, country-club flirtations and private-school feuds.[6] Due to the immense wealth of their respective families, the Chicago press chronicled their mundane social activities, and newspaper columnists feted the young women as the city's most desirable debutantes.[7][8]
In the summer of 1914, these friends began referring to themselves as "The Big Four", even getting rings engraved with "The Big Four 1914". They went to dances and house parties together, and they were seen as a foursome on the golf links and tennis courts at Onwentsia. They were "so legendary for their beauty that they were known by that designation for the rest of their lives."[4]
Ginevra King (November 30, 1898 – December 13, 1980), daughter of Chicago financier Charles King, is best known for her romantic relationship with, and being a muse for, F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was the inspiration for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. King married twice, to William Mitchell and John T. Pirie Jr.
Edith Cummings (March 26, 1899 – November 20, 1984) was one of the premier golfers of her generation. In 1923, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur, and she appeared on the August 25, 1924, cover of Time magazine.[9] She was also a big game hunter and equestrienne. In 1934, she married Curtis Burton Munson.[10]
Cummings met F. Scott Fitzgerald through King, and was the inspiration for the character of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby.[11]
Courtney Louise Letts (June 17, 1899 – April 7, 1995), born in Iowa,[12] was the daughter of Frank Crawford Letts and Cora Perkins. She married Wellesley H. Stillwell on January 10, 1920.[13] They divorced in 1924, and in 1925, she married John Borden, with whom she traveled to the Arctic; this provided the material for her 1928 book The Cruise of the Northern Light. They divorced in 1933 and three weeks later, she married Argentine ambassador Felipe de Espil, who had courted her in the early 1920s.
While married to Espil, she became "one of the world's ten best-dressed women, and an able diplomat herself."[14] In 1943, they moved back to Buenos Aires, and then in 1945 to Madrid when Felipe was appointed Argentina's ambassador to Spain. In 1955, he became ambassador to Brazil, and then around 1959, he and Courtney retired to Buenos Aires. Felipe died in 1972. After moving to New York, she married Foster Adams in 1974. She died April 7, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
Works by Letts:
Margaret "Peg" Carry (December 14, 1899 – June 14, 1942)[15] was the daughter of Edward F. Carry,[16] one-time president of the Pullman Company and assistant to Edward Nash Hurley, chairman of the Shipping Board, during World War I.[17] She is mentioned by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his Ledger from August 1916: "Lake Forest. Peg Carry. Petting party ... The dinner at Peg's ... Peg Carry stands straight".
She married Edward Cudahy Jr. on December 28, 1919, in Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. She died in 1942.
Margaret (Peg) Cary was a close friend of Ginevra's. With Courtney Letts and Edith Cummings, they made up the 'Big Four' debutantes of the time, girls so legendary for their beauty that they were known by that designation for the rest of their lives. In the late 1970s, I met a fellow from Lake Forest at the Yale Club bar in New York City, and asked him if possibly he had heard of 'the Big Four,' who would have been at least a decade his senior. He had indeed—everyone in Lake Forest had— and he could tell me about their subsequent marriages and divorces as well.
Miss Ginevra King, whose marriage to Ensign William H. Mitchell will take place on Sept. 4, is spending a few days with Mr. and Mrs. John J. Mitchell at Lake Geneva.... Miss King... spent the week end with Miss Edith Cummings in Lake Forest.
Society has taken great interest in 'tennis week' at the Onwentsia club.... Miss Ginevra King... play excellent games.
