Editing Jan Masaryk (section)

== Private life ==

From 1924 until their divorce in 1931, Masaryk was married to Frances Crane Leatherbee (1887-1954). An heiress to the Crane piping, valves and elevator fortune, and the former wife of Robert Leatherbee, she was a daughter of [[Charles R. Crane]], a U.S. minister to China; and a sister of [[Richard Crane (diplomat)|Richard Teller Crane II]], a U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia. By that marriage, Masaryk had three stepchildren: Charles Leatherbee, Robert Leatherbee Jr., and Richard Crane Leatherbee.<ref>Leatherbee, Richard, [http://www.genealogyboard.com/leatherbee/messages/2.html "My Family Tree, 1772 - present"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930122902/http://www.genealogyboard.com/leatherbee/messages/2.html |date=2007-09-30 }}, ''genealogyboard.com'', December 13, 2005.</ref> Stepson Charles Leatherbee (Harvard 1929) co-founded the [[University Players]], a [[summer stock]] company in [[Falmouth, Massachusetts]], in 1928 with [[Bretaigne Windust]]. He married Mary Lee Logan (1910-1972), younger sister of [[Joshua Logan]], who became one of the co-directors of the University Players in 1931.<ref>See, [[Norris Houghton|Houghton, Norris]]. ''But Not Forgotten: The Adventure of the University Players''. New York, William Sloane Associates: 1951.</ref>

In 1945 the exile Masaryk became close to the American writer [[Marcia Davenport]], whom he felt had a strong affinity to Czechs and to the city of Prague, depicted in several of her books. Davenport had in 1944 divorced her husband [[Russell Davenport]] and is known to have followed Masaryk to post-war Prague and lived with him there from 1945 to 1948. Following the Communist coup she returned to [[London]], where she and Masaryk planned to be married as soon as he could join her, but only a few days later he was found dead.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Marcia Davenport|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/marcia-davenport|access-date=2020-11-25|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Guide to the Marcia Davenport Papers, 1942-1989 SC.1990.01 {{!}} Digital Pitt|url=https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt:US-PPiU-sc199001/viewer|access-date=2020-11-25|website=digital.library.pitt.edu}}</ref>

Masaryk was a skilled amateur pianist. In that capacity, he accompanied [[Jarmila Novotná]] in a recital of Czech folk songs issued on 78 RPM records to commemorate the victims of the [[Nazi]] eradication of [[Lidice]].<ref>Crutchfield, Will, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0DF1638F934A35750C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all "CLASSICAL MUSIC; Once, the Voice Was Melody Itself. In Fact, It Still Is"], ''The New York Times'', March 7, 1993, accessed October 30, 2008.</ref>

He is reputed to have had an exquisite sense of humour. It is reported that when he was a young Czechoslovak Ambassador to the US, he attended many parties and once the hostess invited him to play the violin. Accepting graciously, he played a Czech nursery song to enthusiastic applause from the audience. Leaving the party with a friend, he was asked why had he been asked to play the violin, to which he replied: "Oh, it's all very simple-- don't you see? They have mixed me up with my father; they mixed him up with [[Ignacy Jan Paderewski|Paderewski]]. And they mixed the piano up with the violin."<ref>Clifton Fadiman (ed.) The Little Brown Book of Anecdotes, Little Brown, Boston 1985, p. 389</ref> Jan Masaryk was active in many societies, among those he was active freemason.<ref>{{cite news |title=Tajné společenství v Čechách – zednáři |url=https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/archiv/1364433-tajne-spolecenstvi-v-cechach-zednari |access-date=21 September 2023 |work=ČT24 - Česká televize |publisher=Česká televize |language=cs}}</ref>