Leslyn MacDonald doesn't show up in the indexes to the 1930 census as hosted by ancestry.com or heritagequest.com, so I've never found her listed in the censuses until now.

As of 4 Apr 1930, she was living in the household of Chester (age 25) and Marion (age 24) Beard, and their kids Alice (4-1/2), and William (3-1/2). Leslyn's (age 25) status in the household was listed as "cousin". They lived at 6205 Oakcrest Way (if you enter 6204 Oak Crest Way, Los Angeles CA into Google Maps, you can get a "street view" of the house -- tax assessor says it was built in 1924. Ignore the part of the picture that says "6204 Oak Crest" -- the label is wrong, and that house is across the street. Leslyn lived in the yellow 1311 sq ft house that you are looking at.)

Census says that her occupation was teacher at a public school.

I believe Marion was the mother of Colin Hubbard, who provided much information to Robert James for his article "Regarding Leslyn".

Is Robert James still in the Heinlein Business? The last few times I've emailed him I got no response.

He's dealing with some heavyweight personal and family issues, I've heard. He will rejoin the community in good time.

This is good stuff, though.

And while on the subject of Leslyn, HERE is a letter she had published in Nebula (a British mag) in 1957, with a few biographical tidbits.

Absolutely fascinating that she makes no reference to either of her more famous names or their connections.

(For those not up on the details, Leslyn Macdonald Heinlein remarried ca. 1953 to a Jules Moccabee and lived out her life in their [restaurant? general store? inn?] in Stockton, California. She never lost her vituperation for RAH.)

Fabulous find, Bill.

No shit. From a 1958 letter to Joe Christoff, publisher of the fanzine Sphere:

Marion Beard was not Colin's mother; she was one of Leslyn's best friends.

Keith Hubbard was Colin's mother, who was Leslyn's sister.

Great find on the 1930 census -- I had never heard her claim to be a public school teacher. She probably didn't do it for very long, since she was at Columbia from 1930-1932. Between that, the time at Pasadena Playhouse, and the college degrees, it isn't hard to see why RAH fell for her. Until her alcoholism and attendant mental issues arose, she was every bit as much a "Heinlein Woman" as Ginny ever was.

Different fields, of course.

Robert

RJ, outstanding to see you here.

Note that the main web site is a live-authoring platform. There's a place to write and post into the general mix "articles" of any length and content - more permanent and formal than here in the forum, and less hassle than on static sites where someone else has to turn your ms into a web page.

Good to "see" you too, Jim.

I love what you're doing here.

Keep up the great work!

Robert

Dr. James is right, of course. I was confused by Marion Beard's obituary, which listed Colin and Ian Hubbard as surviving children, and I didn't have a copy of his article "Regarding Leslyn" handy to double check the facts. I suppose it's possible that Marion and Chester kept the boys for a while after their parents' deaths, or perhaps thought of them as their own children (as Leslyn certainly did about Colin, or so her letters would indicate).

I've got more info about Mark and Keith Hubbard, and Colin and Ian. Robert, if you still have contact info for Colin Hubbard, I'd be glad to pass this along -- Census images, shipping passenger lists which show dates of departure during the 1930's (and the relevant page from the Gripsholm's voyage out of the Philippines), Mark's Naturalization declaration (he was born in England in 1905), etc. And I've found more poetry by Lelsyn as well.

Iirc, the Beards took in the kids briefly after Keith's death.

As for all the other info you've found, pass it along to my email address and I'll forward to Colin.

Mr. Mullins, if I haven't said it before, you're amazing in your ability to dig up all this stuff!

Robert