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=William Brooks Clift= William Brooks "Bill" Clift was born 18 Dec 1886 in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, [[Tennessee]], the son of [[#Moses Haney Clift|Moses Haney Clift]] by his second wife [[#Florence Virginia Parrot|Florence Virginia "Flo" Parrot]]. Bill was the second-youngest child of his father's children. The youngest sibling was named Florence after their mother. Bill went to Cornell University, New Jersey in 1908 and served four years as a captain in the infantry while going to college. In 1910 while they were both at Cornell he met [[#Ethel Blair|Ethel "Sunny" Blair]]. He graduated in 1912 with a degree in engineering, while she stayed on to finish her own degree. They kept in touch by letters and became engaged during her senior year at Cornell. Sunny met his family that year, Bill's father had died in 1911. Even though Bill's mother Flo disapproved of her, Sunny and Bill were married in October 1914. "They didn't have enough money for a honeymoon instead they went directly to the tiny hamlet of Saltillo, [[Mississippi]], where Bill had a job building dams". (''His Life'', pg 13) Sunny encouraged Bill to leave engineering and become a banker. By 1917 he had become a bond salesman for National City Company of Chicago, [[Illinois]], and in June of that year, on his WW1 Draft Registration Card, he lists his residence as Nashville, Tennessee. He had blue eyes, dark brown hair, was of medium height and slender. At some point between 1914 and 1919 they lived also in Kansas, and Bill "sold more Liberty Bonds than anyone else in the mid-West" during World War I. But by early 1919, they had moved to Omaha, [[Nebraska]] where their first child William Brooks Clift Jr was born 4 Feb 1919 and where William was nominated for the vice-presidency of the Omaha National Bank. Eighteen months later, their twins Montgomery and Roberta were also born there in October 1920. After enduring several hard-scrabble years, in Omaha they lived in a three-story house with stained-glass windows, a maid and a nurse. When Ethel was pregnant with Brooks, she had to lie immobile for three weeks to save the baby at the end of her pregnancy. Emma Wilke, then head of nursing, admiring Ethel's strength, then became the private nurse to the Clift family and stayed with the family until Brooks went off to college. About 1921 or 1922, Flo wrote from Chattanooga saying she wanted to meet her grandchildren. The meeting did not go well, which Bosworth seems to put down to Sunny's aggressive attitude but I think it was also possibly her still-unresolved anger over her mother-in-law's prior treatment of her. Flo never saw her Sunny or her grandchildren again. One of Monty's obits states that "eight months [after his birth] the family moved to Chicago" but another source states that "in 1924, Bill obtained a more lucrative position as sales manager of Ames Emerich Investment Company" in Chicago. The family moved to a large house in Highland Park and Bill began making a substanial amount of money. During this period Sunny's restless nature kept her and the children on the move, traveling to New England, Bermuda, Europe and back to the United States. The Winter of 1925 was spent in Somerset, Bermuda where Sunny learned that her mother Maria had just died and was buried at West Point next to her father Robert Anderson. Since Bill's occupation kept him traveling to Manhattan often, to the New York Stock Exchange, they also took a house in Yorktown Heights, New York. In 1926 and 1927, Ethel on her Ships Passenger Lists entries, lists her own residence as Yorktown Heights. It was in 1925 or 1926 that Bill spent time in Virginia and Washington DC trying to track down Sophie Anderson and persuade her to make contact with her niece Ethel. She finally did in 1926, at which time, in the Fall of that year, she told Ethel that Woodbury Blair didn't know she existed. Bill worked long hours to try to provide enough money for the kind of jaunting lifestyle his wife enjoyed for herself and the children, even if it meant not seeing them for months at a time. Bill was a bit long-suffering, while Ethel and the children spent months away, Bill continued to live and work in New York City, never apparently accompanying them. During this time period, Ethel did not do outside work, but at home her word was law. Ethel has been described as wearing the pants in the family with Bill deferring to her about anything related to the household or the children. The Great Depression now hit the Clift family. Their investments worth nothing, their antiques were auctioned off and they moved from their great house in Highland Park, to a small apartment on West Ninth Street in the Village in New York City. Sunny took jobs, as a secretary and as a cleaning lady to make ends meet. At this point, Bill became an insurance-policy salesman. Meanwhile, Sunny's restless foot, made her take the children, alongwith their now-tutor Walter Hayward and go rent a house in Sarasota, Florida for the winter of 1932. Hayward, knew a man who needed a 12-year-old boy for a part in a local production, and so in March 1933, in Sarasota, Monty made his stage debut. Upon their return, Sunny took Monty around to agents and auditions on Broadway which started his stage career. At some point Bill became a stockbroker and the family lived on Wall Street itself for a short time. The family fortunes improved enough that they could send their children to college. Ethel attended Bryn Mawr and graduated in 1941. She joined the Junior League and went to work in Washington DC for the government. On 10 May 1945, her engagement to Lieut. Robert C McGinnis of the Navy was announced in the New York Times. At that time "Mr and Mrs William Brooks Clift" were living at 116 East Fifty-Third Street. Robert McGinnis was the son of the Karl McGinnises of Austin, Texas. Lieutenant McGinnis graduated from the University of Texas and in 1941 from the Yale Law School. At the time of their engagement he was stationed near San Francisco (''New York Times'', 10 May 1945, pg 18). William Brooks Clift died 24 Feb 1964 of a heart attack, at New York Hospital, New York City, [[New York]]. At the time of his death, he and his wife were living in New York City, while Brooks may have already been living in Atlanta, Georgia (where he was in 1966) and Ethel, the wife of lawyer Robert Campbell McGinnis (1918-95) was then living in Austin, Texas. ==Primary Sources for 2== *[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=0&gsfn=moses&gsln=clift&sx=&f107=&f106=&f21=&f33=&rg_f32__date=&rs_f32__date=0&f75=&f72=&rg_f53__date=&rs_f53__date=0&_8000C002=&_80008002=&_80018002=&f114=&f108=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1900usfedcen&ti=0&ti.si=0&gl=&gss=mp-1900usfedcen&gst=&so=3 1900 Census of Chattanooga Ward 6, Hamilton County, Tennessee] *[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&rank=0&gsfn=William&gsln=Clift&sx=&f7=&f9=&f10=&f18__n=&f20=&rg_81004011__date=&rs_81004011__date=0&f23=&f17=&f16=&rg_f19__date=&rs_f19__date=0&_8000C002=&f21=&_80008002=&f22=&_80018002=&gskw=&prox=1&db=1910uscenindex&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=69&recid=78972088&recoff=14+16&fsk=CIAAHswDwiio&bsk=&pgoff= 1910 Census of Chattanooga Ward 6, Hamilton County, Tennessee] *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6482&iid=TN-1877598-3887&fn=William+Brooks&ln=Clift&st=r&ssrc=&pid=28200957 ''World War I Draft Registration Cards''] : "William Brooks Clift; resident of 120 24th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee; born 18 Dec 1886 in Chattanooga, Tenn; bond salesman for National City Co. of 137 South LaSalle, Chicago; married; Capt. Infantry, 4 years, Cornell University, NJ; claims exemption because of Support of Wife; Signed W B Clift; Medium height, slender build, blue eyes, dark brown hair, no disabilities; signed by City Clerk Chicago IL, but recorded at Nashville 5 June 1917" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_3698-0114&fn=W+Brooks&ln=Clift&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2001280405 ''New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957''], Sailing on the Fort St George, out of Hamilton, Bermuda 8 Aug 1925, arriving New York 10 Aug 1925 : "W Brooks Clift, 39, born 1886 Chattanooga, Tenn, residence Yorktown Heights, New York" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_3988-0747&fn=William+B&ln=Clift&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2003254372 ''New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957''], Sailing on the Fort Victoria, out of Hamilton, Bermuda, 1 Jan 1927, arriving New York 3 Jan 1927 : "William B Clift, 40, born 1886, Chattanooga, Tenn, resident of 5 Nassau St, New York, NY" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_4503-0600&fn=William+Brooks&ln=Clift&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2006256985 ''New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957''], Sailing on the Berengaria, out of Southampton 25 May 1929, arriving New York 31 May 1929 : "William Brooks Clift, 42, born Chattanooga, Tenn, 18 Dec 1886, residence at 15 Sheridan Square, New York, NY" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_3988-0747&fn=William+B&ln=Clift&st=r&ssrc=&pid=2003254372 ''New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957''], Sailing on the Nieuw Amsterdam, out of Southampton, 25 Aug 1939, arriving New York 1 Sep 1939 : "Roberta Clift, 18, single, born 16 Oct 1920 Omaha, Neb., resident of 116 E 53rd St, New York; William Clift, 54, born 23 Dec 1884 Chattanooga, Tenn, same residence" *[http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=50000&iid=106940916&fn=Ethel&ln=Clift&st=d&ssrc=&pid=993833 ''New York Times'', 26 Feb 1964], Obituary, "William B Clift, 78, Investment Broker" : "William B Clift, a Wall Street investment broker and the father of Montgomery Clift, the actor, died of a heart attack Monday in New York Hospital at the age of 78. He lived at 460 East 79th Street. At his death Mr Clift was a registered representative of Jesup & Lamont, 26 Broadway, members of the New York Stock Exchange. He was born in Chattanooga and was a graduate of Cornell University. In New York he was a partner in the New York Stock Exchange firm of Ames, Emmerich & Co., was associated with the exchange firm of Tucker, Anthony & R.L. Day and, from 1956 to 1962, was a partner in the exchange firm of Theodore Tsolainos & Co. Surviving besides his son Montgomery, are his widow, Mrs. Ethel Fogg Clift; another son, William Jr.; a daughter, Mrs. Robert C. McGinnis; a brother, Rhotan; a sister, Mrs. Florence Horton, and nine grandchildren." ==Secondary sources for 2== *''Montgomery Clift : A Biography'', by Patricia Bosworth; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; New York (1978), 397 pages *[http://content.ancestry.com/browse/bookview.aspx?dbid=22986&iid=dvm_LocHist008401-00518-0&desc=Ethel+Clift&rc=1047%2c647%2c1236%2c705%3b1234%2c651%2c1402%2c706 ''The history of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee''], by ... page 248 : "William Brooks Clift, who married Ethel Fogg, of Philadelphia, PA. They have three children: William Brooks Clift, Jr, Ethel Clift, and Montgomery Clift." (see also [http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=22986&iid=dvm_LocHist008401-00517-1&sid=&gskw=Ethel+Clift&cr=1 page 247] : "Major Clift's second wife was Florence V Parrott....") *[http://books.google.com/books?id=ibv9mfwrMbIC&dq=lover+%22montgomery+clift%22&pg=PP1&ots=wQvITyjlfD&source=citation&sig=h5MJnqqmFP9gHMgdJEZgvY0Zm7A&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=12&ct=result ''Montgomery Clift: A Biography''], by Michelangelo Capua
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