The ChronicleHerald.ca
Alexander Graham Bell’s granddaughter dies at 101
By JOCELYN BETHUNE
BADDECK — Mabel Grosvenor, a granddaughter of famed telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and likely the last person who had personal memories of him, died Monday at Baddeck. She was 101.
Born at Beinn Bhreagh, the Bells’ Cape Breton summer home, on July 28, 1905, she was the third child of Elsie Bell Grosvenor and Gilbert Grosvenor, longtime editor of National Geographic magazine.
While her parents travelled, writing and photographing faraway places for the publication, Mabel spent many summers with her grandparents at Beinn Bhreagh. In her late teens, she acted as secretary and note taker for Mr. Bell, quickly taking down dictation as he explored genetics, genealogy and hydrofoil boats.
She marched with her mother and grandmother in Washington, D.C., in 1913 for women to get the right to vote and was a witness to a number of Mr. Bell’s experiments, including the flight of the Cygnet, an early kite experiment of Mr. Bell’s Aerial Experiment Association.
In December 1907, her grandfather wrote: "I almost forgot to mention the witness who will probably live the longest after this event (and remember least about it) — my little granddaughter Miss Mabel Grosvenor — 2 years of age."
In the early 1920s, as Mr. Bell neared the end of his life, Ms. Grosvenor travelled with her grandparents to Scotland, where Mr. Bell searched for long-lost ancestors.
"He called it a farewell visit," Ms. Grosvenor said during an interview in 1994.
"He didn’t really get interested in genealogy until his father died and one reason he went back was to try and look for more information. We went to parish offices to look through records and visited cemeteries. He found several cousins he didn’t know existed."
She was one of five women to graduate from Johns Hopkins University in 1931 with medical degrees. She became a pediatrician and practised in Washington, D.C., for 35 years.
During a Bell Club meeting in the early 1990s, Ms. Grosvenor was asked by a nurse what the greatest medical advancement had been during the span of her career.
"Antibiotics," she said without hesitation.
Well into her 80s she was often seen driving her convertible around the streets of Baddeck.
"She was the leader of the family, a matriarch for sure," said Juanita MacAulay, a Baddeck resident who grew up on the estate where both her father and grandfather were caretakers.
In 1966, after her retirement, Dr. Mabel, as she is known locally, set about to operate the Beinn Bhreagh estate, which included a 37-room mansion built by her grandparents in the 1890s and several other homes, many of them dating back to her grandparents’ time.
"She didn’t like the spotlight, but in her quiet manner, she got things done," said Mrs. MacAulay.
For many close to the Bell story, Ms. Grosvenor’s death is the end of an amazing period in the history of Baddeck.
"It’s the end of an era for sure," said Sharon Bartlett, a guide at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site and member of the Alexander Graham Bell Club, of which Ms. Grosvenor was honorary president.
"Who else in this world remembers Dr. or Mrs. Bell? And even if there were someone, they certainly wouldn’t have had such an intimate relationship with them," Ms. Bartlett said.
Ms. Grosvenor was a very quiet and unassuming person, who would "sit in on a lecture (at the Bell museum) and no one would ever say who she was and she liked it that way. She was a very private person."
Her ability to recall names and connections, even into her 90s, was a source of amazement, said Ms. Bartlett, who played piano at Ms. Grosvenor’s 90th birthday party in 1995.
"When Dr. Mabel came back the next year, she thanked me for playing."
( jbethune@herald.ca
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