Personal Life
On August 29, 1907, Lilly married his high school sweetheart, Evelyn Fortune, and moved to a modest home at 12 East Eleventh Street in Indianapolis. Within a few years they had moved to other houses on Indianapolis's north side, not far from his parents' home. Lilly and his first wife had two sons, one born in 1908 and the other in 1910, but both died in infancy. A daughter, Evelyn (Evie) was born on September 25, 1918. In 1926 the Lilly's marriage ended in divorce. Lilly's ex-wife moved to Massachusetts and was awarded custody of their daughter. Over the years Lilly provided financial support and maintained contact with his daughter, who also spent time with her father in Indianapolis and at Lake Wawasee. Lilly's daughter, who had no children of her own, died of cancer on April 5, 1970.
On November 7, 1927, Lilly married Ruth Helen Allison, his secretary. The two had worked together for seven years. Lilly was devoted to his second wife and they were married for more than forty-five years. The couple traveled, collected art and antiques, and built an expansive, three-story home in Crows Nest, at 5807 Sunset Lane in Indianapolis, on a portion of his father's 20-acre estate. Lilly used his grandfather's Maryland birthplace as a model for the home's exterior. The Crows Next neighborhood became one of the most exclusive in Indianapolis. The couple had no children. Ruth died of cancer on March 14, 1973, at the age of 81.
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“In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can’t long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.”
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