A Mother’s Fight for Her Stolen Child
After allegedly losing her daughter to a charitable mission years prior, a Tacoma woman turns to the district court to force a Seattle couple to surrender the child.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. Alice McKay, of Tacoma, yesterday applied to Chief Justice Jones in the district court for a writ of habeas corpus directing John Kevan and Delia Kevan, his wife, of Seattle, to produce in court the person of Mary McKay, aged eight and one-half years, the daughter of the petitioner, whom the petitioner alleges is 'unlawfully detained and restrained of her liberty and from the custody of your petitioner.' The petitioner further states that she is informed that the cause or pretense of the detention of the child is that Mr. Kevan and his wife claim to have taken the child some years ago from the mission of charity in Seattle, and ever since have cared for and supported the child. The petitioner says she is able to support, maintain and educate the child; that she loves it and life is unbearable without the custody and comforting society of her child. Mrs. McKay maintains she was deprived of her daughter without her consent, and that Mr. Kevan and his wife are teaching the child to forget its mother or to recognize her as such. She also alleges that Mr. and Mrs. Kevan refused to allow her to visit the child or to deliver up possession of it. The matter will come up for hearing this morning at 10:00 o'clock.
“The petitioner says she is able to support, maintain and educate the child; that she loves it and life is unbearable without the custody and comforting society of her child.”
This legal struggle over the custody and identity of a child echoes the complex, often heartbreaking debates around parental rights and the role of state or institutional guardianship that continue to surface in Washington family courts today. The case highlights the vulnerability of families navigating poverty and institutional care a century ago, a theme that remains painfully relevant in contemporary child welfare discussions.
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