Anna Thompson Dodge
Anna Thompson Dodge was one of the richest women in the world at the time of her death.Life and family
She was born on 7 August 1866 in Dundee, Scotland, as Anna Thompson. Her parents were William Thompson and Elizabeth Stevens. In 1896, she married Horace Elgin Dodge, Sr., of Dodge Brothers Company. The couple had a son, Horace Elgin Dodge, Jr., and a daughter, Delphine Dodge.
After her husband died, she became a substantial owner of Dodge. She and John's widow Matilda sold the company in 1926 for US $146 million to Dillon, Read & Co., which was the largest cash transaction in history at the time.
On 8 May 1926, she married actor Hugh Dillman, who had previously been married to Marjorie Rambeau. She divorced Dillman in 1947. Her English home was St Leonard's at Clewer, near Windsor, in Berkshire.
She gave the City of Detroit $1,000,000 towards the construction of a fountain in memory of her late husband and son. The Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain was designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1978, and it is located near the center of Philip A. Hart Plaza.
She died on 2 June 1970 at her home, Rose Terrace, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, at the age of 103. She had been a wheelchair user for the previous seven years.
