Lora Josephine Knight

Lora Josephine Knight (1 May 1864 – 26 June 1945) was an American philanthropist from California who was at one time one of the wealthiest women in America according to newspaper reports. She was a major promoter and financial backer of Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis; and donated to a number of other causes and funded various building projects including her own summer retreat Vikingsholm, for which she is most known.

Biography

Small was born in Galena, Illinois, in 1864 to lawyer Edward Small. She married James Hobart Moore, who she met while he worked with her father in his law practice, and who along with his brother became rich by gaining controlling interests in a large number of companies such as the Diamond Match Company, U.S. Steel, Union Pacific, and Nabisco.

In 1884, the two had a son, Nathaniel Moore, who later married Helen Fargo, heiress to the Wells Fargo fortune. As president of the St. Louis Flying Club, Harry Knight knew Charles Lindbergh, and the Knights were major financial backers of Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of Saint Louis. Lindbergh even stayed at the Knight's house the night before his flight.

In 1927, she divorced Harry Knight, charging him with "extreme cruelty." She risked losing her entire fortune from her first marriage as part of the divorce. She hired Swedish architect Lennart Palme, who she was related through marriage, and chose a Scandinavian motif based on Palme's own home in New York. Vikingsholm eventually became part of Emerald Bay State Park.