Mary Reynolds Babcock

Mary Reynolds Babcock (August 8, 1908 – July 17, 1953) was an American philanthropist. As the daughter of R.J Reynolds and Katharine Smith Reynolds, she therefore inherited considerable wealth from her father's company, the nationally prominent R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. She was a founder for both the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. She and her husband Charles Babcock gifted Wake Forest University 350 acres, and the university moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Biography Mary Reynolds Babcock was born in 1908 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the second child to tobacco tycoon R. J. Reynolds and his wife Katharine Smith Reynolds. She was preceded by her brother R.J. "Dick" Reynolds Jr; her younger siblings Nancy Susan Reynolds and Zachary Smith Reynolds followed in 1910 and 1911 respectively. The family lived at 666 W Fifth St in Winston-Salem in a palatial Queen Anne mansion, designed by architect George Franklin Barber. Fifth street was labeled as "Millionaire's Row" due to the number of Reynolds family members, high-ups in R.J. Reynolds tobacco company, and other tobacco or textile industrialists who lived there. The house was located conveniently to the offices of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco at the intersection of Fifth and Main. While R.J. Reynolds worked regularly to continue building his tobacco empire, Katharine Reynolds fulfilled the role of a wealthy Southern wife through managing the household and regularly entertaining fellow Winston-Salem socialites. However, she also deviated from this role through her participation in business and local politics, joining the ranks of the New Women of the era. Prior to her marriage in 1905, she studied business at the State Normal and Industrial School in Greensboro, NC, although she would leave Normal and receive her bachelor's degree from Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia. After graduating, Katharine worked as R.J.'s stenographer and secretary, and he taught her to navigate the stock market. Through purchasing her own stocks, she was able to develop her own independent income; at a time when only 5% of men owned stock, and even less women, she was taking in $10,000 over a period of less than eighteen months. Her management and money skills allowed her to undertake extensive civic duties, such as the creation of a local YMCA chapter, in which she served as President, and Junior League.