Mary Cyrene Breckinridge



  Mary Cyrene Breckinridge was born in Scott
County, Ky., over eighty years ago. Her father,
Clifton Rodes Burch, and her mother, Althea
Viley, died when she was yet a child, leaving her
to the care of relatives, though with means suffi-
cient for an ample support.      Sts
  Of her father, Gen. Gust DOW. Smith said
that he was one of the mosl respected men in
his community. He died when she was quite
young, but her mother's influence survived
through life.
  She was! brought up in the home of her uncle
and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Burch, of whom
she always spoke with grateful love. When she
grew older, she was sent to a boarding school
in Georgetown, where her life seems to have been
a very happy one.
  While still under twenty years of age, she was
married to John C. Breckinridge, and the first
part of their married life was spent in George-
town, in a house now occupied by one of the
members of the Georgetown Chapter of the
Daughters of the Confederacy.
  Later, they moved to Lexington, and bought a
pretty home in the suburbs of the town, where
perhaps the happiest years of my Mother's life
were spent. I think not more than ten years
were spent there when, my Father's political
duties calling him so much to Washington, the