Jessie Dew Ball was born on January 20, 1884, in
Hardings, Virginia to Lalla Gresham and Thomas Ball, a Confederate Civil War veteran and attorney. Aside from a year in
Austin, Texas, and a year in
Baltimore, Maryland, Ball grew up in Virginia. She earned a Life Certificate from the
Farmville (Virginia) Normal School and began teaching in
Lancaster County, Virginia, at the age of 18. She taught at the
Shiloh School in Northumberland County in 1906-1907. She continued that career after moving in 1909 with her family to
San Diego, California. As a young adult, she began amassing profits from the
stock market and
real estate which she used to fund need-based college scholarships. Eventually vice-principal of the elementary school where she was employed, she contributed to the upkeep of her elderly father and mother until they died in 1917 and 1920, respectively.
Marriage Ball met and befriended
Alfred I. duPont when she was 14 and he 34, and they maintained a correspondence thereafter. After the 1920 death of his second wife, they entered a courtship which resulted in marriage on January 22, 1921. The couple made their home in the
Nemours Mansion and Gardens in
Wilmington, Delaware. Retired from teaching, Ball duPont oversaw maintenance of the family estate, took over raising her husband's daughter, Denise, and began to assist duPont in his business. In 1923, duPont hired
Edward Ball, one of Ball duPont's four siblings to survive to adulthood. Ball relocated to Delaware to become manager of the Clean Food Products Company and additionally to advise duPont and manage the estate fortune. The arrival of her brother freed Ball duPont from some of her business concerns so that she could dedicate more time to her charities. In 1927, the family relocated to
Florida, taking up residence in their newly built estate on the St. John's River,
Epping Forest, which was named after the
childhood home of
Mary Ball Washington, the mother of
George Washington, who was Jessie's distant relative. duPont established his main business industry in
Jacksonville, with most of his $34 million assets being transferred to his newly formed Almours Securities, Inc. Ball also moved to Florida, and duPont and Ball expanded their business interests in the area, acquiring substantial real estate and buying into
Florida National Bank. In 1935, Ball duPont became the director of that bank. Meanwhile, Ball duPont also undertook the preservation of
Stratford Hall Plantation, where Confederate General
Robert E. Lee had been born. In 1937, she attended the coronation of King
George VI. In 1940, she purchased
Hurstville and had the house restored as a residence for her sisters.
Widowhood On April 29, 1935, Alfred duPont died, leaving Ball duPont as his primary beneficiary. He also established a substantial trust which Ball duPont administered, along with her brother and duPont's son-in-law, Elbert Dent. She served as president of two of the organizations set up by the trust, the
Nemours Foundation and the
Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust. She also sat on the boards at the
Alfred I. duPont Institute for Crippled Children at Nemours and the
St. Joe Paper Company in Jacksonville, serving as Chairman at the latter.
Death She died on September 26, 1970, in
Wilmington, Delaware. ==Awards==