Elsie Whitaker Martinez

Elsie Whitaker Martínez (1 March 1890 – 31 January 1984) was renowned for her beauty in youth and old age, a muse of many famed writers and artists and an associate of most people in Northern California's Bohemian community of 1906 into the 1920s. Piedmont Bohemian George Sterling called her "the Blessed Damozel."

Early life

Elsie Whitaker was born on March 1, 1890, in Manitoba, Canada, daughter of novelist and war correspondent Herman Whitaker and his wife, Margaret A. Vandecar (1868-1905).

In 1902, she and her family moved to the hills of Piedmont, California, to the "Silk Culture House" at the end of Mountain Avenue. She went to Piedmont grammar school and spent two years Oakland High School. She loved books and studied European history, drama, and literature. By age 16, Whitaker was a "free-spirited artist."

Xavier and Elise had a daughter on August 13, 1913, Micaela (1913–1989), who became a fine artist. Micaela studied with Victor Arnautoff and sculpture with Ralph Stackpole; she later studied stone cutting with Ruth Cravath. In 1944, she married artist Ralph DuCasse and changed her name to Micaela Martínez DuCasse.

Later life

In 1908, Elise and Xavier stayed with Perry Newberry in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, when Xavier taught classes in the California School of Arts and Crafts. in San Francisco (after Chicago, for a while, Margaret C. Anderson and Jane Heap published The Little Review out of a ranch in Muir Woods, in southwestern Marin County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, before moving to New York's Greenwich Village in 1917, then Margaret C. Anderson took it to Paris).

In 1922, Harriet Dean's mother gave a trip to Europe, and she moved into the house of Harriet Dean,

In 1939, Elise, Harriet, and Kai moved to Carmel. In 1941, Xavier became ill, so they took him to Carmel. He was with them for seven months before he died on January 13, 1943.

In 1962 and 1963, Elsie was interviewed extensively for the Regional Oral History Office as a part of a series on San Francisco Bay Area artistic and cultural history. The interview was undertaken at the request of James D. Hart, Professor of English, who served as faculty advisor. One of the interviewers, Franklin Dickerson Walker, interviewed Elise at her house in Carmel on the corner of 17th Avenue and El Carmelo Street. In this interview she shared her memories, papers, and scrapbooks.

In 1981, Elsie moved to San Francisco, after living for many years in Carmel.

Death

Elsie died on January 31, 1984, at St. Anne's Home in San Francisco following a brief illness. She was 93. She is buried at San Carlos Cemetery in Monterey, California.

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