Florence Jaffray Hurst

Florence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman (July 21, 1870 – August 31, 1967) was an American socialite, suffragist, social reformer, organizer, and diplomat. "She led one of the suffrage parades down Fifth Avenue, worked on campaigns on child labor and safe milk and, as minister to Norway in World War II, organized evacuation efforts while hiding in a forest from the Nazi invasion." In her ninety-second year, U.S. President John F. Kennedy honored her by awarding her the first "Citation of Merit for Distinguished Service." She often found herself in the middle of historic events. As she stated, "I think nobody can deny that I have always had through sheer luck a box seat at the America of my times." Early life and family Harriman was born Florence Jaffray Hurst on July 21, 1870, in New York City to Civil War blockade runner and shipping magnate F. W. J. Hurst and his wife Caroline. In 1871 she became a niece by marriage of Helen Smythe, who married her mother's brother William Phillips Jaffray (1845–1887), a New York dry goods merchant. When she was three years old, her mother, then 29, died. She and her two sisters, Caroline Elise and Ethel, were raised in and around New York City by her father and maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Somerville Jaffray. Aged six, she watched her first political torchlight parade, part of the 1876 presidential campaign. "She later told of leaning over the bannister of her home at 615 Fifth Avenue, to hear visitors such as John Hay, President James A. Garfield, and President Chester A. Arthur." She was known throughout her life as "Daisy". Between 1880 and 1888, she received private lessons at the home of financier J. P. Morgan. She also attended the Misses Lockwood's Collegiate School for Girls.