She didn’t marry until what was then considered the advanced age of 44, when she wed businessman Albert Phillips, 10 years her senior. Head of her own household, she had saved enough to buy her own home on several acres in Washington, DC - a home she shared with a male actor who paid rent and a Black female servant.
She was a spinster who supported herself as a stenographer and, later, a newspaper reporter. If there’s one thing to be said about Elizabeth Magie, it’s that she was “not a woman of her time.” She had pale skin and striking brows, a strong jawline and an even stronger work ethic.
