Schooling
No matter where she lived later in life,
Rosa-Maye would always long for a
return to those simple days on the ranch. After moving to town in 1909 and later to Trail End in 1913,
Rosa-Maye worried about what would happen if her father succeeded in his political
pursuits:
They spoke about Dad selling the Ranch at the table today. Such
conversation is more than I can stand. Makes me want to crawl away and die. Guess its only
a question of time until he sells the Ranch anyway. Uncle is sure he is going on Cheyenne
Trip. Spoke about it yesterday. Guess we'll go too. Wish I was "home" tonight.
After spending a little more time away from "home," however,
Rosa-Maye grew to appreciate the many opportunities of city life, particularly the social
ones. Giddy descriptions of dances, teas, parties and overnights soon replaced the
lamentations in her diaries.
Although she was allowed to come back to Sheridan to graduate with
her class in 1915, Rosa-Maye received the bulk of her high school level education at the
Ely Court School in Greenwich, Connecticut, which she entered immediately following her
father's election in November 1914. Following graduation from Ely, Rosa-Maye attended
Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. The home-schooled girl from Wyoming was quite popular and very active
on campus; her diaries and scrapbooks are filled with the details of her busy social life.
With a number of military academies nearby, the ladies at the all-female schools were
never lacking for adequate male companionship.
After graduating from Goucher in 1920, Rosa-Maye experienced one of
the grand institutions of the American upper class: her coming out. This formal
introduction to society lasted for a year and was a way for young ladies to circulate,
meet eligible bachelors and consider proposals of marriage, all under the watchful eyes of
respectable female guardians.
The typical debutante married shortly after her debut. Rosa-Maye,
however, did not. Neither did she pursue a career, although she did work for some time in
her father's Senate office chambers, learning about the issues with which he was
interested. Instead, she became involved with a variety of charitable organizations, wrote
newspaper articles pertaining to western issues such as irrigation, land use and range
practices, and dreamed about returning to the West.
Although she made several trips to Europe, Cuba and Panama, Rosa-Maye's
summers were almost always spent in Wyoming and Montana. When she wasn't in Sheridan
taking care of her invalid grandmother, accompanying her mother on endless rounds of
social calls or playing golf on the south lawn of Trail End, she was at the OW, going on
roundups and cattle drives.
Though she certainly loved her mother and brother, Rosa-Maye was
definitely "Daddy's little girl." She spent as much time with him as possible and when
they were apart, wrote long letters describing what she was doing and with whom. When she
went to Europe in 1920 (her first time overseas), Rosa-Maye sent many letters to her
father, who had gone back to the Wyoming ranches without the rest of the family for the
first time since his election to the Senate. In the first of these notes, she
affectionately expressed her beliefs concerning a father's purpose in life:
You may wonder why Daddys are, when you come home from a hard day's
work and see a frivolous daughter just going out for the evening. Still I assure you that
daughters aren't as frivolous as they seem and Daddys are to remind them that there are
other things in the world besides play. Most of all they set standards (at least for this
little daughter) by which all other men are judged; perhaps, this is their best "raison
d'être."
W
y o m i n g ' s P r e m i e r H i s t o r i c H o u s
e M u s e u m
Rosa-Maye Kendrick
Shortly
after their 1927 Washington wedding (attended by Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and a
bevy of political dignitaries), the Harmons moved to London where the Major
was assigned to the post of Military Air Attaché at the American Embassy.
