Lloyd Crow Stark was born on 23 November 1886, in Louisiana, Missouri, to Clarence McDowell and Lillie Crow Stark. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and married Margaret Pearson Stickney of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908. He and Margaret had two sons, Lloyd Stickney (1909-1946) and John Wingate Stark (1916-1987), before her death in 1930. In 1931, Lloyd C. Stark married Katherine Lemoine Perkins (1901-1993) of St. Louis, Missouri, and they had two daughters, Mary Murray Spottswood and Katherine Lemoine Stark. Stark served in the U.S. Navy from 1908 until 1912, when he returned to Louisiana, Missouri, and served as vice-president and general manager of Stark Brothers Nurseries. His business career was interrupted in 1917, by World War I when he volunteered for the army and served in the United States and in France. Stark returned to his business position following the war and advanced to chairman of the board in 1934. He served in numerous business and civic organizations throughout his life. Stark was elected governor of Missouri in 1936 and served one term from 1937 to 1941. Stark passed away on 17 September 1972, and was buried in the Riverview Cemetery in Jefferson City, Missouri. Maud B. (Cartwright) MacBride was born on 10 July 1882 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her family ran a furniture business in Grand Rapids. Maud married Thomas MacBride on 26 April 1905. He was from a prominent family and ran the Thomas MacBride Lumber Company. The MacBrides had three children: Thomas Day (b.1907), Elizabeth Ann (b.1910), and Barbara Leigh (b.1917). In 1919, MacBride was killed in an accident at company’s the lumber mill in northern Michigan. Not long after Tom’s death, Maudie decided to begin life anew in Long Beach, California. She sold her home in Grand Rapids and moved her three children to the west coast. Unfortunately, both Tom and Elizabeth contracted typhoid fever and died at ages 12 and 10, respectively. In 1916 while traveling east, Lloyd Stark met Maud B. (Cartwright) MacBride at a political party given by friends. The two spent the evening talking, having much in common, and learned that they were both married with two children. Stark began writing to Maudie. Eventually, they began meeting in Chicago and began an affair that lasted for years. On 10 November 1917, Maudie gave birth to their daughter, Barbara Leigh. For many years only Maudie and Stark knew the secret of Barbara’s paternity. Stark met his daughter, Barbara, for the first time at a luncheon at the Blackstone Hotel after she and Maudie returned to the midwest. Barbara was eleven or twelve at the time. Shortly afterward, in 1930, Stark’s wife died and he visited Maudie in Chicago, unannounced. Her sister, Florence, met Stark upon his arrival and told him that Maudie did not wish to see him. In 1931, Stark remarried, believing that Maudie had moved on with her life. About the same time, Maudie met and married businessman Fred W. Surbrey. Stark met his daughter again for lunch at the Blackstone Hotel upon her college graduation in 1937, and relayed to Maudie the details of his trip to see her seven years earlier. The couple remained in touch through letters and telephone calls for years. Maudie died in June 1958, just weeks before Stark made another unannounced visit Barbara’s home in Des Moines, where Maudie had been living. Barbara explained to Stark that she did wish to maintain a relationship with him. It is unclear if Barbara had any communication with Stark after this meeting. Barbara died in 1994.