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Ghapter I arion Benson Owens first publicly documented her creative talents at San Francisco's Hamilton Grammar School "when I was caught drawing cartoons of my teachers on the blackboard and was expelled from all public schools." As a rule, she wasverywellbehaved, having been taught early "the hypocrisies of social graces." Yet while others might see her dismissal as something to be ashamed of, Marion was always to view it with a sense of accomplishment. Just twelve years old, she had been set apart from those she considered "fastidious and dull" and that was definitely a step in the right direction.1 San Francisco in 1900 prided itself on being a cosmopolitan city, but the well-off and socially active Owens family at times stretched the limits of social acceptance. Her father was born in 1857 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where his parents had immigrated from Missouri when the Iowa Territory opened. Len Douglas Owens arrived in a prospering San Francisco at the age of twenty-four and quicklyestablished himself in the advertisingbusiness. He wasanxious to channel his ambitions and install himself in society, and Minnie Benson Hall, almost ten years his junior, had the bearing and the background to help him achieve his goals. Born and raised in San Francisco, Minnie was the daughter of Charles and Aimee GrizwaldHall, who had "come around the Horn" to California from New York following the Gold Rush of 1848. Music was the foundation of the household. Charles owned a piano factory and played concert violin and Aimee was an accomplished soprano and pianist, Minnie was not yet eighteen when she married the twenty-seven-yearold Len Owens in 1884. Over six feet tall with carved Welsh features, Len was the extrovert, serving on the board of the Olympic Club and becoming a champion pistol shooter and all-around outdoorsman. Minnie prided herself on creating a household that was a center for artists and visiting musicians like Italian soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, the Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba, and Enrico Caruso.2 13 v WITHOUT LYING DOWN Their large house on O'Farrell Street also became home for Minnie's aunt and uncle, George and Jane Benson, when they moved from New York shortly after the Owenses were married. George worked at a local lumberyard and Aunt Jane was a help as the children arrived; Maude inFebruary of 1886, Marion on November 18, 1888, and Len junior in May of 1890. Len senior organized a bicycle club for men and they rode all over northern California on the weekends. He became an investor in Aetna Springs, a six-hundred-acre ranch in the Pope Valley, and by 1896 he was the sole owner of the property. He created the Aetna Springs Mineral Water Company to bottle the water from its natural springs, promoted it as a drink of great "medicinal value" to those suffering from "neuralgia, indigestion, rheumatism, dyspepsia and many other ills," and distributed it through his new drug and supply company south of Market Street.3 Leris advertising business was also flourishing. He brought in TomVarney and Charles Green as partners and their firm specialized in creating and posting signs on fences and in trolleys and streetcars. While Minnie was most comfortable in her roles as hostess and mother, Len's life now took him everywhere but home. In the fall of 1898, he assured his wife he would always support her and the children, but he wanted a divorce. Minnie and the Bensons stayed in the house on O'Farrell and the children continued to go to Hamilton Grammar School, less than two blocks from their home. Just before her twelfth birthday, Marion's father told her he was marrying again. His fiancee, Isabel, was the eldest daughter of the celebrated and wealthy lawyer Edgar F. Preston. Eighteen years younger than Len, Isabel had never been married before and, unlike Minnie, was an outdoorswoman who shared his love of horseback riding and bicycling.4 Len and Isabel were married in June of 1901 to what the newspapers called "the excitement of the exclusive set," and in spite ofits being his second marriage, they were listed in the bible of society, the Blue Book. Unlike those in eastern cities, San Franciscans were proud not to attach a negative stigma to personal preferences and took their attitude as an outward signof their sophisticated nature.5 Marion responded to her father's remarriage by adopting an "I don't care" attitude that culminated in...

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