This is the first time in my years of writing #WHM posts that I am featuring a mother and daughter back to back. Yesterday’s post was about May Hurlburt Smith, an Alpha Phi. Today’s spotlight is on her daughter, Shelley Smith Mydans, a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at Stanford University.
May Hurlburt and Everett W. Smith, Stanford University alums, had three children, two daughters and a son. Daughter Shelley was born on May 20, 1915. She grew up on the Stanford campus where her father taught journalism. She enrolled at Stanford and became a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter. Bid night was Friday, January 20, 1933. She was one of 15 pledged to the Kappa chapter, the largest pledge class on campus.
She attended Stanford from 1932-34, and she was a speech and drama major. The production mentioned in The Key was but one of many in which she played a role.
She went east to dance and perform, but ended up working in the field her father taught at Stanford – journalism. For a short time she was employed by The Literary Digest, a magazine which had its demise after the 1936 election. She then began working as a researcher and reporter for Life magazine, the weekly that chronicled world events through photojournalism. Its first issue was published in November of 1936. Among the photographers on staff was Carl Mydans. She sometimes accompanied photographers to get information about the pictures that were taken. She and Mydans met and they married in 1938.
With Europe at war, the Mydans headed across the ocean to document events. At the beginning of their time there they were separated, but after the fall of France they reunited and traveled together. They went to the Far East, to China, and were waiting for visas to visit Russia when they headed to the Philippines. When Manila fell in December 1941, the Mydans were taken as prisoners. They spent time interned in Santo Tomas and then in Shanghai. According to a report in the Stanford Daily, Shelley Mydan’s mother, May Hurlburt Smith received word from the U.S. State Department on October 14, 1943, that her daughter and son-in-law were among the 1236 prisoners released in a prisoner of war swap.
On December 2, 1943, the Gripsholm, an exchange ship on its second voyage home, deposited them in New York.
The March 8, 1945 Stanford Daily reported Shelley Mydans had been in Guam since November 1944. Her husband was in Manila with General Douglas MacArthur. He took the iconic photo of MacArthur’s return to the Philippines when the General strode to shore on the island of Luzon.
Perhaps she thought about writing a book during her time as a prisoner, or maybe on the ship coming home. The first draft of The Open City was written at her family’s home on the Stanford campus, according to a Stanford Daily article. Published in 1945, it was a novel based upon the couple’s treatment and experiences in the 22 months they spent in the internment camps.
After the war, they returned to New York. She was a commentator for a Time Inc. radio news program. In addition to writing for Time and Life, she also wrote two more novels. Thomas was based upon Thomas Becket’s life. The Vermilion Bridge was set in Japan in the eighth century. She and her husband collaborated on The Violent Peace.
Shelley Smith Mydans died on March 7, 2002, at the age of 86.
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