Parents: William Shakespeare Caldwell (1821–1874) and Mary Elizabeth Grayson Breckenridge (1833–1867). Married: Moritz Kurt, Baron von Zedtwitz (1852–1896). Children: Waldemar Conrad von Zedtwitz (1896–1984). Kinship: First cousin three times removed of the post–World War II Smith generation.

Early Life

Mary Elizabeth Breckenridge Byrd Caldwell, known as “Lina,” was born in 1865 into one of the most prominent Catholic families in postbellum America. Her father, William Shakespeare Caldwell, was the son of James Henry Caldwell, the actor and entrepreneur who established the family’s fortune through gas-lighting enterprises in New Orleans and Mobile. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth Grayson Breckenridge, was a granddaughter of U.S. Senator and Attorney General John Breckinridge of Kentucky, connecting Lina to one of the most distinguished political families of the South.

Patronage and the Caldwell Chapel

Lina Caldwell was closely associated with her elder sister, Mary Gwendoline Caldwell (1859–1909), the philanthropist who founded the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The sisters endowed the university’s Caldwell Hall and its chapel, both designed to symbolize the presence of women’s patronage in the growing American Catholic educational movement. Lina personally funded the construction of Caldwell Chapel, where she was later married.

Marriage and Tragedy

In Caldwell Chapel, with Bishop John Lancaster Spalding of Peoria officiating, Lina married Baron Moritz Kurt von Zedtwitz, a German nobleman and yachtsman, in a ceremony that attracted considerable public attention. The marriage linked her to the European aristocracy, and for several years the couple lived abroad.

In 1896 Baron von Zedtwitz was killed in a regatta when Kaiser Wilhelm II’s yacht collided with his own. The accident left Lina widowed with an infant son, Waldemar Conrad von Zedtwitz, then only four months old. She returned to the United States, where Bishop Spalding became the child’s guardian.

Later Life and Controversy

Lina’s later years were marked by controversy surrounding her relationship with Bishop Spalding and the Catholic hierarchy. She publicly accused the bishop of misconduct, as had her sister Mary Gwendoline, whose later life was marked by disillusionment with the Church she had once so generously supported. The sisters’ accusations drew widespread attention in the Catholic and secular press, as both women had been prominent benefactors whose fortunes had endowed major Church institutions.

Legacy

Mary Elizabeth Caldwell von Zedtwitz died in 1910. Her son, Waldemar von Zedtwitz, became internationally famous as a bridge player and theorist and was later regarded as one of the founders of modern contract bridge. The Caldwell name endures through the Caldwell Chapel at the Catholic University of America, which remains a lasting memorial to the family’s early devotion to Catholic education and philanthropy.