Mrs. MORAN, daughter of Hon. Emerson ETHERIDGE, of Tennessee, first saw the light in the country home of her maternal grandfather, Mr. James NAILLING, a wealthy planter of the “Old Volunteer State.” The mother of the subject of this sketch was, before her marriage, Miss Fanny BELL, a queenly, gracious woman, the center and charm of a wide, but exclusive circle of friends; and “exclusive” meant something in the South away back in the fifties. The tenantry on the state of her father – Dr. Thomas BELL, an eminent physician – were devoted to her, and the slaves thought “Miss Fanny” the embodiment of beauty and goodness.
At balls and receptions it was no unusual occurrence for her to slip away from an admiring circle to engage in conversation – never patronizingly – with some forlorn, neglected wallflower. Hers was the beauty of a pure soul that worldly adulation could never spoil.
Mr. ETHERIDGE distinguished himself during his first term in Congress by the wise measures he advocated, his ready wit, his keen satire, and his fervid oratory. He placed his daughter in school in Washington at the old Georgetown Convent, and during her stay there she witnessed many thrilling incidents of the Civil War and met many of the people whose characters and actions have left their stamp on the history of that vitally interesting period. In postgraduate days, when peace had been concluded at Appomattox, Miss ETHERIDGE spent her time between Washington, Nashville, Memphis, and Southern and Eastern summer resorts, being much sought after and admired for her brilliant attainments and sweet, engaging manners.
In 1880 Miss ETHERIDGE married Mr. John Vallie MORAN, a scion of an old French Huguenot family, and went to reside in Detroit, Mich. But whether a belle in Southern cities or a Detroit matron presiding over her spacious, elegant town mansion or her country home at Grousse Pointe Farms, she is the same brilliant woman, thoughtful, forceful, tactful, admired and beloved in her adopted State as in her native Tennessee. Notwithstanding her ten well-trained children, she is ever at the front in charitable and philanthropic work, and finds time to devote to musical societies. During the Spanish-American War she was vice president of the “Woman’s Auxillary,” and now holds the office of vice president in the Michigan Society of the Daughters of 1812. At a reunion of the alumni of her alma mater in 1899 from among that prominent and cultured band of women Mrs. MORAN was chosen “toastmistress,” an office which she filled with all the old-time Southern grace and eloquence. Michigan and Tennessee are both proud to claim her as their own.
Source: Gilchrist, Annie S. Some Representative Women of Tennessee. Nashville: McQuiddy Print. Co, 1902.
