Grace Hall
- Born: June 15, 1872 in Chicago, Illinois
- Died: June 29, 1951 in Memphis, Tennessee
- Daughter of Ernest Hall and Caroline Hancock
- Sister to two brothers: Ernest and Leicester
Due to her family's considerable affluence and lifelong dependence on hired help, Grace Hemingway never had to acquaint herself with a
kitchen or burdensome domestic chores. Her mother had taught her to be the creator of her own success and took every opportunity to encourage Grace's ambitious pursuits, principal of which was her singing.
Shortly after her mother's death in 1895, Grace traveled to New York to begin her training as an opera singer. About this time, she'd begun to reevaluate her relationship with Clarence Hemingway, the gracious and handsome doctor who had assisted her mother in the months prior to her death. Grace had to decide between her aspirations to be an opera singer or mother. She chose the latter and married Dr. Hemingway on October 1, 1896. As folklore goes, Grace Hemingway declined an invitation to sing at a gala honoring Queen Victoria, for the engagement conflicted with the date of her marriage.
Throughout much of his life, Ernest Hemingway harbored a great deal of hatred for his mother. This hatred was mainly fueled from his belief that his mother was responsible for his father's 1928 suicide. In a 1948 letter to Malcom Cowley, Hemingway wrote: "I hated my mother as soon as I knew the score and loved my father until he embarrassed me with his cowardice…. My mother is an all time all american bitch and she would make a pack mule shoot himself; let alone poor bloody father."
Later in life, Grace Hemingway was an accomplished artist and lecturer. She died on June 29, 1951 and her son Ernest did not attend her funeral.
