The Centaurs - Personal Life

Personal Life

Self-conscious and introverted in private, McCay was nevertheless a charismatic showman and self-promoter, and maintained several lifelong friendships. He stood barely five feet (150 cm) tall, and felt dominated by his wife, who was nearly as tall as he was.

His mother often visited him in Brooklyn, and attended Little Nemo's Philadelphia premiere. She died in Edmore, Michigan, in 1927.

McCay married Maude Leonore Dufour, the youngest of three daughters of French-Canadian carriage painter John Dufour. About a decade separated the couple's ages. Biographer Canemaker speculates this may explain the lack of certainty behind McCay's birthdate, even by McCay himself, as he may have tried to downplay the age gap by lying about his birthdate. Maude was also reportedly age-conscious. She insisted on being called "Nan" instead of "Grandma", and kept her hair dyed black until her death at age seventy-two. The couple had two children: Robert Winsor, born June 21, 1896; and Marion Elizabeth, born August 22, 1897.

McCay was agnostic, and believed in reincarnation. He was a lifelong member of the Freemasons, which he may have joined as early as when he was living in Chicago. His father had also been a Freemason, and was buried in 1915 with full Masonic rites, with funerals arranged by his Masonic lodges in both Woodstock, Ontario, and Edmore, Michigan.

McCay's brother Arthur was placed in a mental hospital in Traverse City, Michigan on March 7, 1898, where he stayed until his death from bronchopneumonia and arteriosclerosis on June 15, 1946. He never received family visits. McCay never let his children know about his brother, nor did they know about the existence of his sister Mae, who died in 1910.

McCay was a light but frequent drinker; he drank for comraderie, rather than for a love of drinking. He was an avid reader of poetry, plays and novels; he admired W. B. Yeats, knew the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, and could quote the Bible and Shakespeare.