My mother always wondered what became of her second cousin, Louis Philippe Dougherty, born in New Jersey in 1911, son of Louis Dougherty and Catherine 'Katie' Belcher and grandson of Daniel F. Dougherty and Mary Kiley, her grandmother’s sister. My mother knew Louis when they were children and their families exchanged postcards until Katie died in 1937. My mother thought, erroneously, that Louis was one of the Dougherty boys whose mother died when they were young. They, however, were his first cousins, sons of his uncle Charles.
Louis became famous in horse racing circles, living most of his working life in Lexington, Kentucky. He established the Stallion Station, a well-known and successful breeding farm and ran his horses in some of America’s most prestigious races.Louis was married to Jane Hutchinson Rose, with whom he had a son Daniel, who is married but has no children. Louis and Jane divorced in 1969. Louis died in Florida in 1988.
Ironically, there was an article in a Richmond, Virginia, newspaper in June 1957 about Lou’s purchase of a winning horse. My parents subscribed to this paper, but it is doubtful that either of them read the sports section very thoroughly, if at all. In any case, my mother probably would not have recognized Louis P. Doherty as her long-lost cousin - his family had dropped the “ug” from their surname many years before.
