April 14, 1918 - Miss Olive Irene Berry

On February 4 Mary reproduces a short very complimentary poem that her colleague, Miss Berry, wrote about her during an idle moment at the telephone company.  Miss Berry signed the poem "Miss Olive Berry".  On February 12 Mary had a social visit at Miss Berry's house that included "Mr. Berry" (likely Olive's brother, Clifford) and others, possibly at 2366 N. Gratz Street, where the family was living in 1920.  On April 14 Miss Berry and a couple others spent a similar evening with Mary at her house playing music and otherwise entertaining themselves.

It is very likely that Olive Berry is Olive Irene Berry.  Olive was born January 30, 1895 in Cleveland, Ohio to Walker and Margaret Berry.  Her parents had both emigrated from England in the 1880s.  Olive was baptized in an Episcopal church and was confirmed on April 16, 1909 at Zion Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.  The family had still been living in Cleveland in 1900 but all subsequent U.S. Census records from 1910 to 1940 show her living in Philadelphia.

In 1910 she was living with both parents, one brother and one sister.  By 1920 her mother had died and she was living with her brother (Clifford) and her father, as she was through the 1940 census.  She is identified as a supervisor in a telephone company in 1920 and working as an operator at a telephone company in 1930 and 1940.

She never married.  According to the Social Security Death Index she died in Philadelphia in July, 1986 at age 91.  She is buried in the Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.

It is not known if Mary had any subsequent contact with Olive Berry in the years after her diary was written.