Elizabeth “Bessie” McKenna tied the knot with William Blake in October of 1902. Thirty years later, she learned the contract was seemingly unbreakable.

Bessie was just 23 years old when she exchanged marriage vows with 25-year-old William, a traveling financial collector for a brewery. The couple settled on Parade Street in Providence and welcomed a child, John Howard, in 1905. They later relocated to Tobey Street and then to Narragansett Boulevard in Cranston while William continued his travels for work.

In 1931, Bessie filed for divorce. Her petition was denied. She waited a year and then filed again, during the winter of 1932, accusing William of neglecting to provide for her. By this time she was living on Norwood Avenue in Edgewood and her husband had packed up and left her.

Desperate for a divorce, she presented her case in Superior Court, where witness testimony was heard one cold Rhode Island afternoon. There, William told his own story. He testified that back in the summer of 1930, he had just returned home from a business trip and came upon his wife sitting in an automobile with a town police officer who was married and had eight children, the youngest being only months old.

William told the court that he heard his wife telling the officer how much she loved him, and asking him what she should do as it was inevitable William would find out about their affair. William alleged that he immediately went into the house, packed a bag and left.

He said he returned to the house three days later to retrieve the remainder of his personal items. Allegedly, Bessie was there and the two engaged in a conversation whereby she informed him that she had more interest in the officer’s little finger than in William’s entire body.

William said he commented to her that she had probably been cheating for the last decade, and that she responded by telling him she had been cheating for the last two decades. He said she then asked him if he was going to give her any money and that he told her the police officer could give her money instead.

William left the state and two months later, petitioned for a divorce in Georgia. He testified that, soon after filing the divorce petition, he received a heart-wrenching letter from their 25-year-old son. In response, he wrote his wife a letter, explaining that he would forgive her if she stopped sneaking around with other men. She soon replied by sending him a copy of her first petition for divorce in Rhode Island.

William went on to tell the court that, during the fall of 1931, he arranged a meeting with his wife and son in New York. It was not cordial and he said that she informed him, “I’ll shoot you before this thing is through.”

While Bessie’s initial petition for divorce was not granted, William’s was. Now, Bessie’s lawyer argued the validity of that divorce as William’s mailing address was not in Georgia but in Charlotte, North Carolina. William explained his mailing address was actually that of a hotel where he had all his mail sent to, but that he resided in Augusta.

The judge had no idea whether or not the Georgia divorce was legal, but he made it clear there would be no Rhode Island divorce. Testimony from the previous day had told a story of the married officer going to visit Bessie and taking her out for rides in his automobile whenever her husband was traveling for work. Although the judge admitted there was no proof of adultery, he felt the relationship between Bessie and the officer was too close for a married woman to be engaging in.

Eventually, the split was made legal. William remarried and moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he continued working as a traveling salesman, this time peddling porcelain. He died there of a heart ailment in 1948.

Bessie and their son John moved to Queens, New York, where John worked as an executive for a financial research company. He later married and moved to Philadelphia and gained a job as a financial analyst for a fire association. He died in 1954, also of a heart ailment.

It appears that Bessie died in 1971 in Massachusetts. There is no evidence to suggest that she ever married again. Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.