Papers of Mary Tyng Higgins, 1912-1987

Ethel Arens, daughter of Adelma S.and Edward J. Arens, was born in Boston, on October 25, 1887, and received her A.B. from Radcliffe College in 1911. She married Walworth Tyng (Harvard A.B., 1905, Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, S.T.B., 1911), in 1912; they went to China as missionaries in 1913, and for nearly forty years worked as missionaries in Changsha, Hunan Province. At Reverend Tyng's retirement in 1949, they returned to the United States, and he served in parishes in Rome, New York, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and Euston, Maryland. During this period, Ethel Arens Tyng published two accounts of her life and work in China, Letters to My Grandchildren (1963) and Gate of the Moon (1967), and wrote collections of memories and stories for Christmas: "Tyng-a-Ling Memories" (1972), "More Tyng-a-Ling Memories" (1973), and "Still More Tyng-a-Ling Memories" (1974). The Tyngs had five children: Mary Atkinson, John Stevens, William Wark, Anne Griswold, and Franklin Somes. Walworth Tyng died in 1960 and Ethel Arens Tyng died in 1974.

Walworth Tyng married Ethel Arens, 1912. They had five children: Mary Atkinson born April 20, 1913, married Charles Ashley Higgins. John Stevens born May 31, 1915, married Camilla. 3 children: Edward, Eleanor, Catherine. William Wark born December 2, 1918, married Anna. 3 children: William, Robert, and Mary Ethel. Anne Griswold born July 14, 1920. 1 child: Alexandra, daughter of Louis Kahn. Franklin Somes, born January 25, 1924, married Jean. 2 children: Randy and Mary Cabot. Griswold Tyng (brother of Walworth) married Margaret Fuller; 2 children: Stephen. Margaret married Ralph Lauren.

Mary, eldest child of Walworth Tyng and Ethel Arens Tyng, was born in Changsha, on April 13, 1913. She returned to the United States in 1926 at the outbreak of revolution in China and attended Radcliffe College, receiving her A.B. in 1934. She worked as a secretary and teacher of religious education and took care of her younger siblings when they in turn were sent to the United States for high school and college. In 1937-1938 she and her sister Anne made a trip around the world, arriving in China as it was invaded by the Japanese and in Vienna shortly after the German annexation of Austria.

Mary met the missionary Charles Ashley Higgins while working in Indo-China and they were married in Hong Kong in 1939 (see #90.) They were captured by the Japanese and interned in 1941, and repatriated in August 1942. The Higginses had five sons: Charles Tyng, Alexander, Ashley, Dudley, and Steven. They lived first in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where Charles Ashley Higgins was rector of the Episcopal Church, next in Waco, Texas (1946-1957), and then in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Charles Ashley Higgins was dean of Trinity Cathedral (1957-1977). They moved to Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1977. Charles Ashley Higgins died in 1985.

Mary Tyng Higgins wrote an unpublished play "Co-Prosperity Hotel" (ca.1942), and three autobiographical books, Up in Kuling and Down (1968), about her childhood in China, Nearly Nineteen (1971), about her Radcliffe years, and With a War On (1984).

Charles Millington Higgins married Myrtle Blanche Ashley. They had 4 children: Charles Ashley, Edwin, Clarence, and William Lovell. Charles Ashley married Mary Atkinson Tyng 1939. They had 5 children: Charles married (1) Charlotte, divorced 1974, (2) Gail. 2 adopted children: Wally and April. Alexander (Sandy). Ashley married Lisa. Dudley married Donna Kay Pyles. Stephen married Valerie. Edwin married Jean, 2 children: Heather and Jean. Clarence married Mary. William Lovell married Leota, l child: Annette.