John Marshall Harlan II - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1928, Harlan married Ethel Andrews, who was the daughter of Yale history professor Charles McLean Andrews. This was the second marriage for her. Ethel was originally married to a New York architect Henry K. Murphy, who was twenty years her elder. After Ethel divorced Murphy in 1927, her brother John invited her to a Christmas party at Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland, where she met John Harlan for the first time. They saw each other regularly after that party and eventually married on November 10, 1928 in Farmington, Connecticut.

Harlan, a Presbyterian, maintained a New York City apartment, a summer home in Weston, Connecticut and a fishing camp in Murray Bay, Quebec, a lifestyle he described as "awfully tame and correct". The justice played golf, favored tweeds, and wore a gold watch which had belonged to the first Justice Harlan. In addition to wearing his grandfather's watch, when he joined the Supreme Court, he would use the same furniture with which his grandfather had furnished his chambers.

John and Ethel Harlan had one daughter, Eve Dillingham (born on February 2, 1932). She was married to Frank Dillingham of West Redding, Connecticut, until his death, and has five children. One of Eve's children, Amelia Newcomb, is the international news editor at The Christian Science Monitor and has two children: Harlan, named after John Marshall Harlan II, and Matthew Trevithick. Another daughter, Kate Dillingham, is a professional musician (cellist) and published author.