Danske Dandridge (1854–1914)

Danske Dandridge was born Caroline Dane Bedinger in Copenhagen, Denmark, where her father was serving as the American Ambassador to Denmark. Her parents nicknamed her "Danske," meaning "Little Dane." When she was three years old, the family returned to the USA. Following the death of her father, Danske and her two siblings were raised by her mother on Long Island and on an estate near Shepherdstown, West Virginia called Poplar Grove. She was privately educated as a child and then graduated with highest honors from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. In 1877, she married Adam Stephen Dandridge, with whom she had three children. They lived at Popular Grove, now renamed Rosebrake, which she had inherited. She became a poet, publishing in national magazines such as The Independent, Harper's, and the Century, and producing a collection entitled Joy and Other Poems (1888). She was devoted to gardening, especially raising roses, and wrote horticultural articles for American magazines such as Forest and Stream and Garden and Forest, and British publications such as Flora and Silva. She also researched and wrote several historical works, including George Michael Bedinger: A Kentucky Pioneer (1909) and, American Prisoners of the Revolution (1911). She committed suicide at 59 after struggling with depression.