Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

Joseph Medill (1823-1899). Image source: Chicago Tribune archives. Rev. Robert W. Patterson (1814-1894). Image source: Find A Grave.

Joseph Medill with his grandchildren. Left to right: Medill McCormick, Eleanor Medill Patterson, Robert R. McCormick and Joseph M. Patterson.

Patterson House, 15 Dupont Circle NW, Washington DC: Robert and Elinor Medill Patterson; Cissy Patterson; American Red Cross; Washington Club; The Ampeer Dupont Circle Apartments.

Count Josef Gizycki (1868-1926). First husband of Cissy Patterson, count from a noble Polish family. Image sources: Guelph Public Library Archive; Flat Creek Ranch, Jackson, Wyoming.

Countess Gizyski with her daughter, c. 1910. Felicia Leonora Gizyski (1905-1999).

Eleanor Medill “Cissy” Patterson. Image Source: Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division, Cph. 3b 29571.

Eleanor “Cissy” Medill Patterson, journalist and newspaper editor and publisher, was one of the first women to ever head a major daily newspaper, the Washington-Times Herald starting in 1930.

She was born into one of the most prominent families in American journalism in 1881. She was the granddaughter of two powerful men: Rev. Robert W. Patterson, first president of Lake Forest University and a founder of Lake Forest, and Joseph Medill, owner of the Chicago Tribune and mayor of Chicago.Her family headed a media dynasty which would reach its height in the 1930s with papers in Chicago, New York and Washington, plus a mighty radio station (WGN for “World’s Greatest Newspaper). Cissy’s father, Robert Wilson Patterson, Jr. was editor-in-chief of Chicago Tribune. Her brother, Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Medill Patterson, founded the New York Daily News. Her cousin Robert McCormick ran the Tribune and WGN, while her other cousin, Medill McCormick, served in the Senate.

The Patterson family built a lavish mansion on Dupont Circle in Washington DC in 1903. They would spend part of each year in the city.

Cissy’s uncle Robert S. McCormick became Ambassador to Austria-Hungary, and Cissy accompanied her aunt and uncle to Vienna in 1902. There, she attracted the attention of fortune-hunting Russian Count Josef Gizycki, a notorious gambler and ladies’ man, down on his luck. Despite her family’s objections, Cissy married the count and moved to his feudal manor in Russian Poland.

In 1905, a daughter, Felicia Leonora, was born and life with the count became difficult. Cissy accused her husband of abuse and fled to London. The Count pursued and kidnapped the little Countess, hiding her in an Austrian convent. President Taft was asked the Czar to intervene and Felica was finally returned to her mother. Cissy filed for divorce, which didn’t come through until 1918.

After her experience abroad, Cissy returned to Chicago. She rented "Little Cottage" on Ahwahnee Road from Louis F. Swift. In Lake Forest, Cissy and her daughter enjoyed country life. Cissy started writing and performing with local theater groups including the Lake Forest Players.

By 1923, Cissy was back in Washington D.C., writing for her brother’s New York Daily News, entertaining and traveling. She went on to publish novels, Glass Houses (1926) and Fall Flight (1928). Cissy entertained dignitaries and artists at 15 Dupont Circle.She became editor of the morning Washington Herald and evening Washington Times in 1930. In 1939, she bought the two newspapers from William Randolph Hearst and merged them to become the Washington Times-Herald. Cissy died of a heart attack at age 63 in 1948.

Cissy Patterson: Publisher and Countess