Izetta Jewel(1883-1978)
- Actress
Izetta Jewel was born Izetta Jewel Kenney in Hackettstown, New Jersey
in 1883 to Elizabeth Henrietta (Denno) Kenney and Cornelius C. Kenney.
Her mother was a suffragist and painter, for a short time offering art
classes. Her father was a trained photographer who spent little time
with the family, traveling throughout the United States and Mexico in
an attempt to make his fortune until his accidental death in 1906 when
he was hit by a train. Izetta Jewel had one sister, Hazel May Kenney,
and a half-sister and half-brother, Bertha Church and Everett Church
Jr., who were the product of her mother's previous marriage to Everett
L. Church. Having been a young child when her biological parents
divorced and her biological father being unknown to her, Bertha assumed
the surname Kenney. It is unclear whether she was ever officially
adopted by her step-father or whether she was informed of her true
descent. Everett L. Church Jr. died as a young man. As a child, Izetta
attended private schools: Pamlico in Pompton, New Jersey, and East
Greenwich Academy in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, until she began her
training at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She made her
first stage appearance in the play Tess in Wilmington, North Carolina,
in 1900. She continued her stage work, traveling around the country
making notable performances in New York, San Francisco, and Portland,
Oregon, and joining various stock companies, among them the Castle
Theater Stock Company in Boston, Massachusetts, until she arrived in
Washington, D. C., and met and married William G. Brown Jr., a wealthy
West Virginia congressman, in 1914. Following their marriage, the
couple settled at Brown's estate in Kingswood, West Virginia. The
couple had one child, Izetta "June" Brown, who was born just weeks
before William G. Brown Jr.'s sudden death in March 1916. Following her
husband's death, she became increasingly politically active, working in
support of the suffrage amendment in West Virginia. She was also chosen
to make the seconding speech for presidential candidate John W. Davis
at the Democratic national convention in 1920, having attended as part
of a national committee to look after the interests of the suffragists.
Following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, she became one of
the first women to run--unsuccessfully-- for United States Congress in
1922. She was an ardent supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1936
traveling ten thousand miles by plane with pilot Phoebe Fairgrove Omlie
to campaign for him. After her unsuccessful run for Congress, Izetta
Jewel Brown traveled abroad both alone and occasionally with her
daughter, mother, and sister Hazel. She worked as a freelance lecturer
and writer and served as a member of the Women's Committee of Four of
the American Farm Bureau Federation, investigating country life abroad.
Along with her daughter "June" and her mother "Lilla," she attended
Rome's first women's suffrage conference in 1923. During her continuing
travels she visited China, among other places, gathering information
for her lectures and writings. After her return to the United States in
1927 she married Hugh Miller, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, dean
of the College of Engineering at George Washington University and later
head of the civil engineering department at Union College in
Schenectady, New York. Both before and following the couple's marriage,
she held a number of positions, working as freelance writer and
lecturer (1920-1927); Radio Dramatic Director and Commentator on
Current Events for WGY-Radio in Schenectady, New York (1927-1930);
Commissioner of the Department of Public Welfare of Schenectady, New
York (1929-1931); as well as holding several federal government
positions (1935-1942), among them Regional Director of Women's
Activities for the central states in the Work Projects Administration,
and Regional Supervisor, War Public Services. Although Izetta Jewel
appears to have been raised as a Methodist, she developed an interest
in Christian Science during its early years. She seems to have been an
adherent of the First Church of Christ Scientist under Mary Baker Eddy,
but following Eddy's death in 1910, and a subsequent schism in the
church, she followed the teachings of the Christian Science Parent
Church under the leadership of Annie C. Bill. Bill had enlisted several
prominent former members of the First Church, among them John V.
Dittemore and A. A. Beauchamp. Izetta Jewel remained in regular contact
with these leaders of the splinter church that was reorganized into the
Church of Universal Design in 1924. She also developed a relationship
with Francis J. Mott, who had been a follower of Bill since 1922.
Following Bill's death in 1937, Mott, who had organized his own church
called The Society of Life, presented his philosophy to the leaders of
the Church of Universal Design, who voted to dissolve the church and
urged members to join the society. With the exception of John V.
Dittemore, who recanted his association with Bill and rejoined the
First Church of Christ Scientist, most did, including Izetta Jewel. She
held a number positions of authority in the several incarnations of the
church, serving on the board of directors of The Society of Life and
editor of its publication, Integration Magazine. Although The Society
of Life is rumored to have dissolved shortly after World War II, Izetta
Jewel continued a correspondence with Mott and received his newsletter
until 1969, sending "donations" from time to time, indicating that at
least a small core group of members continued to follow Mott's
teachings. By 1948, Izetta Jewel had moved to La Jolla, California,
purportedly for her husband Hugh's health. In the same year she began
hosting a show on KQBC-Radio in La Jolla, interviewing various
individuals and presenting news of local interest. She also began a
column in the La Jolla Light, in which she mainly offered commentary on
notable La Jolla women and on items of interest to women. She became
involved with a number of local organizations including the Social
Service League of La Jolla, the La Jolla Women's Club, the Theater and
Arts Foundation of San Diego County, the La Jolla Playhouse Women's
Committee, etc. Due to her husband's declining health it was necessary
to place him in assisted living, where he died in 1965. She remained in
La Jolla until her death in 1978.