THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS

This dress has brought personal misery or disaster to everyone to has worn it or planned to wear it

This dress of ottoman silk and rare lace was designed and made for the wedding of Marie V. N. Greene and David P. VanHorne, who were married in Bainbridge, New York on January 14, 1886.

David left Marie in 1889 to seek gold in Oregon.  They were never reunited, although he declared his love for her until his death many years later.  The dress was passed on to their daughter, Evelyn Henrietta VanHorne to wear for her wedding.  Her fiancé, who was in France during World War I, was killed in a mine field just a few days before the wedding.  The war was already over and he was on his way home to her.  She never married and died at the age of 79, an “old maid.”

David and Marie’s granddaughter, Alta Marguerite VanHorne, wore the dress as her wedding, but six months after the wedding her husband, Daniel Patrick, took multiple sclerosis and died within the year.

The dress was put away and not worn for many years. 

In 1949, Alta VanHorne Patrick Buker wore the dress for an historical tour she was giving through her home.  The next day she became ill and was bedridden for more than a month.  She recovered, but her illness remained a mystery to the doctors.  The dress has never been worn again.

        The dress was the inspiration for a series of     
                           novels by Geralyn Dawson.                   

©2010 North Fort Worth Historical Society

Last Update: 12/30/2011