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About Mrs. Northen
Mary Elizabeth Moody Northen was born on February 10, 1892,
to W.L. Moody, Jr., and Libbie Rice Shearn Moody.
The eldest of four children, Mary was schooled by a private tutor and made her gala debut in the ballroom of the family’s elegant mansion in Galveston. She married local insurance company owner Edwin Clyde (Mike) Northen on December 1, 1915, and moved into a house two blocks west of the family home on Broadway.
The Northens, who had no children, were avid travelers who enjoyed spending time at the family ranches, hotels, and resorts. She collected mementos wherever she went, and became particularly fond of pottery, baskets, and jewelry created by Native Americans.
Mrs. Northen’s husband died after the couple had been married for nearly 40 years, and her father died just seven weeks later, on July 21, 1954. Known as a shy and quiet person all her life, she was acknowledged in the press for rising above her grief to guide the family’s immense business enterprises successfully.
“The greatest monument we can build to my father is to see his organizations prosper,” she said at the time.
- Mrs. Northen had been groomed for the role for decades, in fact. It is said her first venture was the Great American Chicken Company, a business her grandfather set up for her as a child, selling eggs and chickens to family and friends. She dined with her father and discussed business almost every night after her mother’s death, and she began serving on various boards of directors of the Moody interests in 1942.
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At the age of 62 when her father died, Mrs. Northen became president of the American National Insurance Company, Moody National Bank, the News Publishing Company (which owned the Galveston News and the Galveston Tribune), the Commonwealth Life and Accident Insurance Company of St. Louis, American Printing Company, and W.L. Moody and Company, Unincorporated, Bankers of Galveston.
She also chaired some 50 organizations, including the Moody Foundation, the W.L. Moody Cotton Company, the Southern Trading Company, the National Hotel Company and nearly 40 hotels owned by Affiliated National Hotels, and Silver Lake Ranches, which owned properties in Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
She established the Mary Moody Northen Endowment in 1964.
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