An Elopement & A Mayor

Alan Russell Kemp was one of 7 children born to William Henry Kemp and Isabelle Florence Nathan.  Born at South Orange, NJ, he went on to study Business Administration at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Harvard University, 1929 - Ancestry

Altoona High School, 1925 - Ancestry

Miram Louise Willoughby, the daughter of Edgar A Willoughby & Sarah L Russell, was born in Altoona, PA and would also head to Massachusetts but to study music. 

How, when & where these two met might be a mystery, but it is clear they visited his sister's house many a time...

Altoona Mirror, 10 Jun 1930

Wedding of Local Girl Is Revealed

Mrs E A Willoughby of 2518 Fifth Avenue has announced the wedding of her daughter, Miss Miriam Louise Willoughby, to Alan Russel Kemp of Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, NJ. The following is an account of the proceedings as taken from a Maplewood, NJ paper: A date for the wedding of Alan Russel, youngest son of Mr and Mrs William H Kemp of Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, whose engagement to Miss Miriam Louise Willoughby of Altoona was made known last fall, was under discussion with his parents this past week when the young gentleman surprised his family by stating that the pair had been married on may 29, 1929 by Rev Ray A Eusden of the Elliott Church, Newton, Mass. A sister of Alan's, Mrs John E Gale, resides there and the couple were frequent visitors at her home. The bride was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston at the same time Alan, a Rutgers graduate, was attending the Harvard graduate school of business administration at Cambridge and the wedding took place at their graduation before leaving for their respective homes. Miss Willoughby completed a four years' course of study at this noted school of music and is an accomplished musician. Alan, upon graduation, entered the employ of the Irving Trust Company of New York, where he is now in their credit department. The couple will occupy the Kemp house this summer,  while the family are at the seashore home, and they are expecting to move into their own home in Maplewood this fall.  It was a search for this prospective home with his father that made the wedding date an item for discussion and caused the upset of any plans the couple may have had for their own method of announcing their marriage. Both families were pleased with the engagement when made and are now reconciled to its termination.

According to the censuses, Alan worked at the bank and then he became mayor of Maplewood in 1958.

This obit ran in the New York Times, 15 Feb 1961; Miriam passed away in 1998.