Mary Elizabeth Streit Preston Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS-4156

Scope and Contents

The collection contains a twelve-page typed account of Mary Elizabeth Streit Preston of her trip to Russia in August 1931, when she was part of the first group of Americans allowed to enter the U.S.S.R. after the October Revolution during the first "FIve Year Plan." There are also two undated newspaper clippings about television programs filmed in the U.S.S.R.; the envelope they were in is dated July 16, 1963.

Dates

1931, 1963

Creator

Preston, Mary Elizabeth Streit (Author, Person)

Biographical / Historical

Mary Elizabeth Streit Preston, daughter of Charles William and Sally Ives Streit, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1895. On February 22, 1917, she married Jerome L. Horton of the Horton Ice Cream Company of New York CIty. They were divorced and she married Lawrence Preston in 1933. They later divorced.

Mary lived in New York during the summer and in Miami Beach, Florida, in the winter. She enjoyed a very active social life in New York, Palm Beach, Miami Beach, and Cuba. She traveled extensively, often with her mother. Together they toured around the world on the Graf Zeppelin in 1930.

Mary was an accomplished athlete, winning awards in tennis and golf. Even late in life, she moved closer to the beach in Miami Beach in order to be able to walk to the beach and swim in the ocean every day.

Mary Elizabeth Streit Preston died in Miami in 1983.

Extent

0.1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

Typed account of one of the first Americans allowed to enter the U.S.S.R. in 1930, during the first "Five Year Plan."

Provenance

gift of Edward M. Streit, 2015

General

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