Partner Edna Schoyer
Queer Places:
Mamanasco Farm (now Richardson Park), 729 North Salem Road, Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877
Mountain Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum, 2675 North Ave, Bridgeport, CT 06604, United States
Anne Shelton Richardson (March 14, 1884 - August 7, 1965) was born on March 14, 1884, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as the daughter of George Richardson and Rose Harriet (Hugë) Richardson.
Growing up in her home state, she eventually built a life of profound personal, social, and political significance alongside her life partner,
Edna Schoyer.
Beginning in 1915, Richardson and Schoyer lived together in a grand mansion that Richardson constructed on a 110-acre estate overlooking Mamanasco Lake in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Their home functioned as both a private sanctuary and a dynamic hub for their shared activism as queer suffragists. The couple actively hosted suffrage meetings within the house and, following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, transitioned their political efforts into organizing for the League of Women Voters. Beyond their political commitments, the two shared a passion for global exploration, traveling the world together with documented voyages arriving from diverse international locations such as Trinidad, New Zealand, England, and Gibraltar. In official records such as the U.S. Census, they shared residences in towns like Redding and Ridgefield, explicitly identifying their relationship as partners.
The partnership faced a tragic turning point when Edna Schoyer passed away in August 1946. Devastated by the loss, Richardson continued to reside in their cherished home for the next nineteen years until her own death on August 7, 1965, at the age of 81. While Richardson distributed her substantial fortune across numerous charitable contributions through her will, she made a very distinct exception for the home they had built together. Refusing to allow others to inhabit the space, she explicitly requested in her legal directives that the house be razed so that it would not be occupied after her death. Although the state of Connecticut challenged the stipulation, the court ultimately upheld Richardson's wishes, and the house was demolished.
To ensure her partner would be forever remembered, Richardson established provisions in her will directing funds to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church for commemorative flowers to be placed on the altar each Christmas and on the anniversary of Schoyer's death, a tradition that endures today. Upon Richardson's death in 1965, her enduring bond with Schoyer was cemented in their final resting place. The two partners were buried together in the same plot under a shared headstone at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
References:
 Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse |
Other references:
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