Marjabelle Young Stewart

Who was Marjabelle Young Stewart?

Marjabelle Young Stewart was an American writer and expert on etiquette.

Marjabelle Young Stewart was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa to Marie and Clarence Cullen Bryant. She, and her three sisters lived in an orphanage after her parents divorced, where her youngest sister died of a mastoid infection at age 2. After her mother remarried they returned to live with her. She attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs. After graduating, she married scientist Jack Davison Young and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1941. She became a model and came into contact with Washington society as a result. She went on to teach etiquette and manners to American Presidents such as Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. She moved to Kewanee, Illinois in 1965 after her divorce from Mr. Young and remarriage to attorney William E. Stewart. She created a network of etiquette classes, which at its height had locations in several hundred U.S. cities. These classes were called White Gloves and Blue Blazers; they usually ran in cooperation with department stores.