NPS Photo

A young Marion Estelle Edison.

Mary and Thomas Edison's first child was Marion Estelle, born on February 18, 1872. As a child, her nickname was "Dot," a reference to the Morse code used to send messages on telegraphs. Between her mother's death and her father's remarriage, 12-year-old Marion spent a great deal of time with her father. He even sent her out to buy his cigars. She claims to have seen Edison propose marriage to Mina Miller using Morse code.

Marion boarded at Somerville Seminary in Somerville, New Jersey, and BradfordAcademy in Bradford, Massachusetts. In 1892 she married Karl Oscar Oeser, a German army lieutenant, and lived in Germany even through the First World War. Although she described her marriage as "one long drawn out honeymoon," it ended in divorce in 1921. She then returned to the United States, where she died on April 16, 1965.