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#0804: Willa Cather to Leda J. Stacy and Laura Mary Moench, [April 22 to 28, 1928]

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THE KAHLER
THE KAHLER CORPORATION
OWNING AND OPERATING
WORRELL HOSPITAL
THE DAMON HOTEL
CURIE HOSPITAL
ROCHESTER CALORIE KITCHEN
Rochester, Minn.2 THE KAHLER
HOTEL ZUMBRO
COLONIAL HOSPITAL THE COLLEGE APARTMENTS
ZUMBRO CAFETERIA
MODEL LAUNDRY Dear, Kind Ladies1;

Thank you for the lovely goodbye flowers you sent me. They will go on my way with me tonight and be fair companions. I need not tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you, for you must have seen it. I feel almost sure that we will meet again.

Cordially yours Willa Cather THE KAHLER
Rochester Minnesota2 For Dr. Stacy3 and Dr. Moench4

Information about this letter:

Source File:
cat.let0804.xml
Letter identifier
0804
Contents
Document is one leaf, handwritten on recto only. Includes one envelope, handwritten.
Person to whom letter was written
Leda J. Stacy and Laura Mary Moench1
Date letter was written
[April 22 to 28, 1928]
Explanation of conjectured date
Cather was at the Mayo Clinic from c. mid to late April 1928 (see #2090, #0934, and #0936). The conjectured date range reflects the fact that this letter seems to be referring to her imminent departure.
Place letter was written
Rochester, Minnesota, United States2
Location of original letter
Willa Cather Papers, 1899-1949, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library (6494), University of Virginia, Special Collections, Charlottesville, VA

Person Annotations

1765

Moench, Laura Mary (“L. Mary”) (1891-1958). American physician. Born in New York state to Persis and Henry Moench, Laura Mary Moench graduated from Wellesley College (1914) and attended medical school at Cornell University before transferring to Johns Hopkins University. In 1928, when Moench was a physician at the Mayo Clinic, Cather met her and her colleague Dr. Leda Stacy. Moench resigned from the Mayo Clinic in 1932; Dr. Stacy followed her east in 1935, and the two women lived together in White Plains, NY. Moench became a general practitioner in White Plains, an instructor at Cornell Medical School, and a staff physician at hospitals in New York City and White Plains. She died of cancer in White Plains.

1766

Stacy, Leda J. (1882-1963). American gynecologist. Born in Rochester, MN, Leda Stacy received her MD from Rush Medical College (1905) in Chicago, IL, and completed a residency at the Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, CA. She joined the staff of the May Clinic in her hometown in 1908. She became a pioneer in radiation therapy and organized the Section on Gynecology. In 1928, when Cather was a patient at the Mayo Clinic, she met Stacy and her colleague L. Mary Moench. Stacy resigned from the Mayo Clinic in 1935. She followed Dr. Moench, who had resigned in 1932, to White Plains, NY, where the two women lived together. Stacy joined the family planning clinic at the White Plains Hospital. She retired at age eighty-four after practicing medicine for sixty years. She died in New Jersey and is buried in Rochester.

1766

Stacy, Leda J. (1882-1963). American gynecologist. Born in Rochester, MN, Leda Stacy received her MD from Rush Medical College (1905) in Chicago, IL, and completed a residency at the Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, CA. She joined the staff of the May Clinic in her hometown in 1908. She became a pioneer in radiation therapy and organized the Section on Gynecology. In 1928, when Cather was a patient at the Mayo Clinic, she met Stacy and her colleague L. Mary Moench. Stacy resigned from the Mayo Clinic in 1935. She followed Dr. Moench, who had resigned in 1932, to White Plains, NY, where the two women lived together. Stacy joined the family planning clinic at the White Plains Hospital. She retired at age eighty-four after practicing medicine for sixty years. She died in New Jersey and is buried in Rochester.

1765

Moench, Laura Mary (“L. Mary”) (1891-1958). American physician. Born in New York state to Persis and Henry Moench, Laura Mary Moench graduated from Wellesley College (1914) and attended medical school at Cornell University before transferring to Johns Hopkins University. In 1928, when Moench was a physician at the Mayo Clinic, Cather met her and her colleague Dr. Leda Stacy. Moench resigned from the Mayo Clinic in 1932; Dr. Stacy followed her east in 1935, and the two women lived together in White Plains, NY. Moench became a general practitioner in White Plains, an instructor at Cornell Medical School, and a staff physician at hospitals in New York City and White Plains. She died of cancer in White Plains.

Place Annotations

Rochester, Minnesota, United States

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