An Affair of the Heart

 

Cousins: John Henry "Doc" Holliday and Mattie Holliday "Sister Mary Melanie", an affair of the heart

Gunfighter and gambler Doc Holliday's life has captured the interest of old west historians since the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881. Contemporary newspapers documented his life as he lived on the edge. But some history isn't really complete without knowing about a person's personal relationships. Family and the people you meet can be an extension of your life, long after your gone. Even if there is a romance that isn't allowed, like in Doc's life, that strong hidden love can give emotional support, confidence, and security. But it can also make one temperamental, with little interest in the future, and no fear of death. For some, life is meaningless without passion to make your heart beat stronger.

According to Gary Roberts book Doc Holliday: The Life And Legend, the first mention of a romantic relationship between John Henry and his cousin Mattie Holliday was from Patricia Jahn's biography of Doc in 1957, The Frontier World of Doc Holliday. Doc and Mattie had kept in touch by writing several letters while Doc was out west, and some of those letters were still in the family's possession. Jahn's was corresponding with Lillian McKey, Doc's first cousin, looking for any information on Doc. Lillian wrote one paragraph in a letter to Jahn's that Doc and Mattie had a relationship. But several days later Jahn's got an airmail letter from her denying it. In 1975, Jahn's wrote in a letter to Susan McKey Thomas, granddaughter of Doc's uncle William McKey, that "it read very much as if she had told another family member about it and gotten a scolding. Very contrite."

Throughout history, marriage of first cousins were not uncommon. But Mattie was Catholic, and the Catholic church forbids the marriage of first cousins. The Holliday family denied that Doc and Mattie were in love but didn't deny they were close. Nonetheless, their romance continued to be written into history and is believed to be one of the reasons Doc went west. The other reason was because Doc had tuberculosis and sought a drier climate. But Doc's travels didn't indicate that was why he went west. 

It was believed at the time that a high altitude between 3,000 to 6,000 with a dry climate would help tuberculosis sufferers. Regardless, Doc didn't go to a drier climate. He left Georgia and arrived in Dallas, Texas, in September 1873, and stayed in Texas for the most part of four years. The average yearly humidity in Griffin, GA, is the same as Dallas, TX, 65%. The altitude in Dallas is 325 feet lower than Griffin. Doc didn't live in a higher altitude until 13 years later when he went to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, around six months before he died. The altitude in Glenwood Springs is 5,761, but the humidity is only 12% less than where he lived in Georgia, Texas, and Arizona. Doc wasn't concerned with trying to live a long healthier life. The southern gentleman lived for loyalty, gambling, and beating the odds, which he likely felt were the only things left after being denied his one true love. 

Some of the Holliday family wouldn't claim Doc as family. Robert Lee Holliday, the grandson of Doc's cousin, Robert Alexander Holliday, stated that "Much later in life I found that Grandma Holliday thought Doc was a vagabond, gambler, and other unmentionable names, and disavowed any family relation with him..."

In 1883, around the age of 32, Mattie entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Convent and Academy of St. Vincent de Paul in Savannah, Georgia. She took the name of Sister Mary Melanie and was a member of the order for fifty-six years. She taught at the Sacred Heart School in Augusta and later became the mother superior there.

After Doc passed on November 8, 1887, one relative recalled that Sister Melanie "would talk of him and say that if people had only known him as she had, they would have seen a different man from the one of Western fame." She destroyed some of the letters from Doc before she died and her sister Marie Mahoney burned some letters to keep her sister's personal life private. Sister Melanie died on April 19, 1939, at the age of eighty-eight at St. Joseph's Infirmary. She is buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Source: Doc Holliday: The Life And Legend, by Gary Roberts