If you’ve been in the dating scene for a while, you’re probably all too aware of how impossible it feels to find a guy who actually wants to commit. That wasn’t the case for Mary Landon Baker, a Chicago heiress and socialite, who managed to receive what must be a record 65 marriage proposals over the years yet never walked down the aisle.
Back in the 1920s, Mary was engaged to a guy named Allister McCormick, who’d courted her with a ridiculously expensive engagement ring and lavish wedding plans, complete with nearly $100,000 worth of gifts from invitees. Unfortunately for Allister, Mary was a runaway bride of sorts and never showed up for the ceremony. Oops!
This wasn’t the only time Mary left men at the altar. Over the years, she was engaged to “an English lord, an Irish prince, a Spaniard of means” and a Yugoslavian diplomat, just to name a few. When she died in 1961, the alleged number of marriage proposals she’d received over her lifetime reached 65 — and yet she never said “I do.” Why is that?
As Mary told a journalist, “I did not marry because I did not meet the right man at the right time at the right place. I have never been in love.” That sounds like as good a reason as any not to become a bride.
However, that’s not to say Mary lived a life that was lacking in any way. She was said to have loved tango dancing, fancy gowns, and even pirate parties. In other words she lived her life to the fullest without ever needing a man by her side. If that’s not something to aspire to, I don’t know what is.
