Margaret O'Brien
Margaret Elizabeth O'Brien Davis (born November 19, 1870 in Montgomery; died April 1, 1898) was a poet and author. She was the daughter of building supplier and later Mayor of Birmingham Frank O'Brien and the wife of prominent physician John D. S. Davis.
Davis was educated at the Loretto Convent in Kentucky, graduating in 1888. She was described as "of medium height, slender and girlish[…] with dark wavy hair, and eyes of a changeable gray."
She contributed numerous stories and poems to the Birmingham Age-Herald, of which her father was editor. She also contributed to The American, The New York Journal, The New York Review and other periodicals. She helped to organized the Women's Press Club of Alabama and served as its secretary.
She published a well-recieved historical novel entitled Judith the Daughter of Judas: A Tale in 1891, when she was 18 years old. In the novel Judas Iscariot's daughter becomes a mistress to a prominent Roman citizen and helps the state uncover Christians for persecution before she is convinced of Christ's enduring power and commits suicide.
Davis died in 1898 at age 27 and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. After her death her father donated 300 books to the Avondale Public Library in her memory. Her niece, Margaret Hundley Farr, was named in her honor.
Publications
- Brien, Margaret E. (1891) Judith the Daughter of Judas: A Tale. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Co.
References
- Moulton, Charles Wells (1892) The Magazine of Poetry: A Quarterly Review. Vol. 4
- "Mrs. Margaret O'Brien Davis" obituary (April 2, 1898) The New York Times
- Browne, Catherine Greene (2007) History of Avondale. Birmingham: A. H. Cather Publishing Co.
External links
- Margaret E. O'Brien Davis at Findagrave.com