Word: northener
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...grey-haired woman walked into an office in Galveston, Texas' American national Insurance Co. building one day last week, sat down at a desk and began signing her name to a stack of documents. Mrs. Mary Moody Northen, 62, was formally taking over as head of the $400 million empire left by her father, W. L. Moody Jr., who died at 89 as one of the ten richest men in the U.S. (TIME...
Under his will his daughter was named president or board chairman of some 50 corporations that he controlled. Ownership of the corporations was left to the Moody Foundation, a charitable trust that he set up to save his empire from being broken up to pay inheritance taxes. Mrs. Northen, as foundation chairman, and four other trustees-will vote the stock, thereby control the Moody companies. Among them: a chain of 30 hotels, three banks, eleven ranches, two daily newspapers, a commercial printing plant, a cotton company, and the American National Insurance Co., whose assets of $364 million make...
...young womanhood she spent much time riding horses on her father's ranches. It was her habit to arise at 2 p.m., have breakfast and stay up until dawn of the next day. When she became interested in a young hotel clerk, Edwin Clyde Northen, her father advised him to get into the insurance business and, after they were married, helped him. They had no children, and in recent years Mrs. Northen spent most of the time with her father. Her husband died...
Modern Living. Old W. L. Moody Jr. was renowned for his frugality, once rebuked an insurance executive for giving a stenographer a $5 raise after 20 years' service with the company. But Mrs. Northen was even more frugal. Until a few years ago, she had no modern appliances in her home; food was kept in an old-fashioned icebox. She had no radio, and her house was heated by a wood stove. She dressed plainly, wore black cotton stockings. She drove a 1928 Studebaker until her father heard that people were laughing at her and gave her a Cadillac...
Before he died, her father also gave her some training in making executive decisions. Last week, at one of the first corporation meetings that she conducted, Mrs. Northen bravely announced an expansion program for her enterprises, said that there is "no limit and no ceiling to the expansion and growth" of the Moody enterprises. But Texans were skeptical. The American National Insurance Co. is regarded by businessmen as a solid, well-organized firm in a position to grow rapidly. Other parts of the Moody empire are not so solid. Many of the Moody hotels have seen better days, need modernization...