Louise Tracy

Louise Ten Broeck Treadwell ( born July 31, 1896 in New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, † November 13, 1983 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American stage actress. Notoriety she gained through her ​​marriage with Spencer Tracy and as the founder of the John Tracy Clinic, an internationally pioneering training facility for families with deaf children.

Life and work

Louise Treadwell was the daughter of Bright ( Smith) Treadwell and Alliene Treadwell, born in Wetmore. The mother was a prominent lawyer and, by virtue of the local newspaper New Castle (PA ) Daily News. The marriage of the parents were divorced when Louise Treadwell was a teenager.

1915 Treadwell began studies at Lake Erie College in Painesville (Ohio ), where she graduated with honors later. Then she began to work as an actress in various repertory theaters. Asked it was mainly because of their beauty; as above average talent was never Treadwell. In March 1923, she went as a Leading Lady at the Leonard Wood player in White Plains (New York), where she met Spencer Tracy, who was still standing at the very beginning of his career on stage. The couple married on September 12, 1923 in Cincinnati.

On 26 June 1924, their first child, John, was born. Treadwell lived at this time in the household of her in-laws, as Tracy, was often with the changing ensembles with whom he worked on tour. Ten months after the birth of her son, she discovered that the child was deaf - a fate that usually meant in this period that the person concerned did not learn to communicate and were disadvantaged for life. Louise Treadwell was determined to allow her son despite his disability is a "normal" life, and began to form comprehensive to eventually teach John lip-reading and speaking. Their efforts were successful; 1927 said John for the first time, according to the word Mom, and in June 1927 he attended the Wright Oral School in New York, a Hörbehindertenschule, for the first time in its history took up a three year old with John Tracy.

In the summer of 1930, John Tracy ill poliomyelitis ( polio ). End of November 1930, the family moved to Hollywood, where Tracy now working film for Fox. On 1 July 1932 daughter Louise was born, which was called to distinguish it from their eponymous mother " Susie ". 1936 related to Tracy's a ranch in Encino in Los Angeles, where Tracy and Treadwell, who both played polo, their horses and many other animals stayed.

The Marriage of Tracy's had to withstand many challenges. An affair of Spencer Tracy with actress Loretta Young led in 1933 to a one-year separation of the spouses. From 1942 until his death in 1967 maintained a partnership with Tracy Katharine Hepburn, on the preserved the press until 1962 silence. Although Tracy no longer lived with Treadwell since 1942, they remained in close relationship and were formally continue on as a married couple.

At a meeting of the National Workshop of Social Workers and Teachers and Parents of the Hard of Hearing, which was held at the University of Southern California in July 1942, Treadwell spoke for the first time publicly about their commitment to the Deaf. More gigs followed. The plans to create a training facility for families with deaf children, led in September 1942 establishing the John Tracy Clinic, which was initially housed in a small building on the edge of the campus of the University of Southern California, and in 1952 moved into a new building.

Treadwell, who put great emphasis on the involvement of parents in the promotion of hearing impaired children, the future teachers of the institution trained personally. Spencer Tracy assisted the hospital in part with their own funds, in part, he used his celebrity to raise funds. The John Tracy Clinic, was the affected families to provide for the rich in Hollywood in this way, the most popular address donations, which enabled the establishment of all services free of charge.

For health reasons Treadwell retired in October 1974 from the head of the clinic back. After a long illness, she died in 1983 at the age of 87 years. It is together with Spencer Tracy buried in Los Angeles at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Glendale.

Awards

Louise Treadwell were also awarded honorary degrees from Northwestern University, the University of Southern California, the Lake Erie College of MacMurray College, the Gallaudet College, Whitworth College and Ripon College.

1956 Treadwell was appointed rehabilitation for four years as a member of the National Advisory Council on Vocational. 1963 was followed by appointments in the Neurological and Sensory Disease Advisory Committee of HEW, 1965 to the National Advisory Board of the National Institute for the Deaf technical, and 1969 in the President's Task Force on the Physically Handicapped.

Stage performances (selection)

• April 27 - May 1922: Chains of Dew (Author: Susan Glaspell; Provincetown Playhouse)