Nathalie Schenck Laimbeer

Nathalie Pendleton Cutting Schenck was born in New York City, the daughter of Spotswood Dandridge Schenck and Effie Morgan Schenck.[2] Congressman Nathanael G. Pendleton was her great-grandfather. At age 15, she raised $25,000 for the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War, with a chain letter scheme asking friends to send dimes.[3][4]

Laimbeer was best known as a socialite when she took a job with the Food Administration during World War I.[5] After the war, she was manager of the Home Economics bureau of New York Edison, demonstrating kitchen applications of electricity,[2] and in 1919 went into banking, as manager of the women's department of United States Mortgage and Trust Company.[6][7] "The women's department makes it easier for women to do their banking business themselves, rather than have it done for them by men," she explained in a 1920 article.[8] She was the first woman officer at National City Bank, where she was assistant cashier and head of the women's department from 1925 to 1926,[9][10] when she retired for health reasons.[2]

Laimbeer was president of the National Association of Bank Women,[11][12] and was the first woman banker to address the American Bankers Association.[2] She wrote articles on society topics for Harper's Bazaar,[13][14] and on banking for The Delineator and New York World. She was active in the Child Study Association and supported the visiting nurse program at the Henry Street Settlement.[2]

Nathalie Schenck married twice. She married Charles Glen Collins, of the British Army, in 1904;[15] they had a son, George, before they divorced.[9][16] She married stock broker William Laimbeer, widower of actress Clara Bloodgood, in 1909, and they had two daughters, Nathalie Lee Laimbeer Cornell[17] and Josephine Laimbeer Schiff (wife of John M. Schiff). He died in an automobile accident in 1913.[18][19] Nathalie Schenck Laimbeer was injured in the same accident,[20][21] and had lingering health issues;[22] she died at home in late October 1929, from heart disease, aged 46 years.[2] She left over $125,000 to her children.[23] She is the great grandmother of Bill Laimbeer.