Funeral services were held here this afternoon for Mrs. Florence Blum Mayer, widow of David Mayer, pioneer dry goods manufacturer. She died yesterday at her home, 614 Sheridan road, Glencoe, Ill.
Sixty-two years of age at her death, Mrs. Mayer gave a considerable amount of her time to charitable activities. She was born in New York City and was a resident of this city for forty-five years.
Mr. Mayer organized the firm of Schlesinger and Mayer Company in 1871 following the great Chicago fire. His employees numbered more than a thousand before the store was bought out by Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company. He died in 1920.
Mrs. Mayer was active in the Chicago Red Cross during the World War when her three sons saw action on the front. She supported the industrial workshops in this city, belonged to the Chicago Woman’s Club and the Chicago Women’s Aid Society.
The Mayers were known in the musical world for taking Mary Gardne, then a choir singer, into their home in 1897. She lived with the family for a year and subsequently studied in Paris by means of loans to her by the Mayers on years later Mary Garden snubbed Mrs. Mayer when the latter visited her in Paris in 1909.
Surviving her are David Mayer, Jr., Herbert and Richard, sons, and Mrs. Marjorie Davis, a daughter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
