Chicago's Big Four were a quartet of debutante

Debutante

A débutante is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. It should not be confused with a Debs...

s in the Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 social

Socialite

A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....

 scene during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, described as "the four most attractive and socially desirable young women in Chicago."

Background

Each of the "Four" was born around the turn of the century and came from a wealthy family in the Chicago area. In the summer of 1914, these friends began referring to themselves as "The Big Four," even getting rings engraved with "The Big Four 1914." They attended parties and played tennis together. They were "so legendary for their beauty that they were known by that designation for the rest of their lives."

Ginevra King

Ginevra King (1898-1980), daughter of Chicago financier Charles King, is best known for her romantic relationship with, and being the muse

Muse

The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...

 for, F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...

. She was the inspiration for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....

. King married twice, to William Mitchell and John T. Pirie, Jr.

Edith Cummings

Edith Cummings (March 26, 1899 – November 1984) was one of the premier golfers of her generation. In 1923, she won the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship

United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship

The U.S. Women's Amateur is the leading golf tournament in the United States for female amateur golfers. It is played annually and is one of the 13 United States national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association . Female amateurs from all nations are eligible to compete...

, and she appeared on the August 25th, 1924
cover of TIME magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

. She was also a big game hunter and equestrienne

Equestrianism

Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...

. In 1934, she married Curtis Burton Munson

Munson Report

The Report on Japanese on the West Coast of the United States, often called the Munson Report, was a 29-page report written in 1940 by Curtis B. Munson, a Detroit businessman commissioned as a special representative of the State Department, on the sympathies and loyalties of Japanese Americans...

.

Cummings met F. Scott Fitzgerald through King, and was the inspiration for the character of Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby.

Courtney Letts

Courtney Louise Letts was born in Chicago on June 17, 1899. Around 1920, she married Wellesley H. Stillwell. They divorced in 1924, and in 1925, she married John Borden, with whom she traveled to the Arctic; this provided the material for her 1928 book The Cruise of the Northern Light. They divorced in 1933 and three weeks later, she married Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 ambassador Felipe de Espil, who had courted her in the early 1920s.

While married to Espil, she became "one of the world's ten best-dressed women, and an able diplomat herself." In 1943, they moved back to Buenos Aires, and then in 1945 to Madrid when Felipe was appointed Argentina's ambassador to Spain. In 1955, he became ambassador to Brazil, and then around 1959, he and Courtney retired to Buenos Aires. Felipe died in 1972. After moving to New York, she married Foster Adams in 1974. She died April 7, 1995 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

Works by Letts:

• The Cruise of the Northern Light - New York: Macmillan Co. 1928. (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 2004. ISBN 0811731405)
• Adventures in a Man's World - New York: Macmillan Co. 1933. (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 2005. ISBN 0811732053)
• La Esposa del Embajador - Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez S.A. 1967. (Spanish)
• Noticias Confidenciales de Buenos Aires a USA (1869-1892) - Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez S.A. 1969. (Spanish)

Margaret Carry

Margaret "Peg" Carry (1899/1900-1942) was the daughter of Edward F. Carry, one-time president of the Pullman Company and assistant to Edward Nash Hurley, chairman of the Shipping Board, during World War I. She is mentioned by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his Ledger from August 1916: "Lake Forest. Peg Carry. Petting party...The dinner at Peg's...Peg Carry stands straight..."

She married Edward Cudahy, Jr.

Edward Cudahy, Jr.

Edward Aloysius Cudahy, Jr. , also known as Eddie Cudahy, was kidnapped on December 18, 1900 in Omaha, Nebraska. Edward Cudahy, Sr. was the wealthy owner of the Cudahy Packing Company, which helped build the Omaha Stockyards to world renown through the 1950s. The kidnapping caused a national uproar...

 on December 28, 1919 in Holy Name Cathedral

Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago

Holy Name Cathedral, formally the Cathedral of the Holy Name, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States. It is also the parish church of the Archbishop of Chicago...

in Chicago. She died in 1942.