Rebecca Blair Riddle
(1839-1911)
Rebecca Blair McClure was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Judge William and Lydia S. Collins McClure. She was well-educated and knew several foreign languages. In the early 1860s, she was married to John Wallace Riddle of Philadelphia. Riddle was the great nephew of Horace Binney, a well-known lawyer and Whig politician. In 1863, Riddle died at 25 years old, leaving the pregnant Rebecca a young widow. John W. Riddle, Jr. was born in 1864 (he later married Theodate Pope (1867-1946), one of the first female architects and a survivor of the Lusitania). Seeking a healthier climate for herself, Rebecca took her son to St. Paul in 1870. There she met the widower, Charles E. Flandrau and they married later that year. The couple had two children together, Charles Macomb and William Blair, husband of Grace H. Flandrau. Rebecca traveled to Europe several times and played a prominent role in the early years of the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association. She died in St. Paul.