Helen Clay Frick's great-nieces and great-nephews had a special name for her: "Grauntie," short for "Great-Auntie." And a Great Auntie she was.

Frick (1888-1984) was the only surviving daughter of industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick, and never married. At a time in history when wife and mother were by default the only socially acceptable identities for women, Frick chose another path.

She was not alone in this choice: Frick had two other women whose influence early in her life may have made this choice a more secure one in her mind.

Frick's own Aunt, Martha Childs - known to her nieces and nephews as "Aunt Attie" - remained unmarried. She spent much of her time doting on her nieces and nephews, including frequent stays at Clayton, the Frick family's Pittsburgh home. She so endeared herself to the family that Mr. Frick had a home built for her in the same neighborhood.

Marika Ogiz, Frick's longtime governess, also never married. "Mademoiselle," as she was called, and Frick maintained a lifelong friendship that continued even after Ogiz's return to Switzerland at the turn of the twentieth century.

Frick spent her adult life doting on her nieces and nephew, and later on their children, taking each of them to Europe, sometimes visiting her beloved Mlle. Ogiz.

Frick spent much of her adult life playing Grauntie to far more than her own kin: during World War I, she founded a branch of the Red Cross and nursed soldiers in France; she later founded the Iron Rail farm to offer young girls working in Massachusetts textile mills a chance for several weeks' respite.

She was also responsible for her father's donation of a public park to the city of Pittsburgh in 1908 - she had requested the donation in lieu of the traditional débutante gift to provide a place for the city's children to play.

Frick's legacy lives on, both through her philanthropy and through her great-nieces and great-nephews and their children, all of whom remember their dear Grauntie.

Melanie Linn Gutowski, Savvy Auntie's Associate Editor, is a proud Godmother and ABC.

Note: The author is affiliated with the Frick Art & Historical Center, an organization founded by Helen Clay Frick.

Published: March 9, 2011

Image: Frick Art Reference Library Archives