Papers of Martha Armstrong (Patty) Tucker Stapleton (1861-1893)

Historical/Biographical Note

Historical/Biographical Note

Martha Armstrong Tucker Stapleton, known as Patty, became the creative member of the family as a successful author, a recognized political reporter, and a leading spokesperson for the suffrage movement in Colorado. After going to school at The Willows and the Moravian Academy, she returned home to teach, help her family keep house, and do volunteer work. She also began writing and sending her stories to newspapers and magazines. After short stints in Boston and Albany, she ultimately settled in Denver, Colorado, where she became the society reporter for the "Denver Tribune" under the name Patience Thornton. In 1883, she married journalist William Stapleton at Castle Tucker. Patty continued to write for newspapers and magazines and published her first full-length novel, "Kady, A Colorado Story," in 1886 under the name Patience Stapleton. In the fall of 1893, she learned she had cancer. Her doctors recommended she have it removed at a private hospital in New York City, which she did, but died two days after the surgery.