Laura Barney Harding

She became a close friend of Katharine Hepburn in the late 1920s when they were both aspiring actresses; the two travelled together to California to seek work in films, and shared a house in Franklin Canyon Park, near Hollywood.

[4] Harding was invited to a dance hosted by Anne Harriman Vanderbilt in 1921, confirming her position among American high society.

[6] In summer 1929, Harding began work with the Berkshire Players in Stockbridge, New York, performing W. Somerset Maugham's Caroline.

[7] About this time, Harding met Hepburn when they were students of voice instructor Frances Robinson-Duff in New York City.

[12] She was president from 1954 to 1970 and chairman of the board from 1970 to 1974 of the MCOSS Nursing Services, a non-profit volunteer organization serving patients in Monmouth, Middlesex, and Ocean New Jersey counties.

She campaigned to convert the Bendix plant in Red Bank, New Jersey, into a health center, subsequently named the Geraldine L. Thompson Building after the MCOSS founder.

[2][14] In 1968 Harding was named woman of the year by the Business and Professional Women's Clubs of Monmouth County.

[2] Harding was paired with society men like Wilmarth Lewis, a collector of Horace Walpole memorabilia, Carleton Burke, a polo player who lived in Berkeley Square, Los Angeles, and Fortune reporter Russell "Mitch" Davenport.

Her close friends included Hope Williams, a fellow graduate of Miss Porter’s and a member of the Junior League, and her lover Mercedes de Acosta, Clifton Webb, Gertrude Lawrence, Guthrie McClintic and his wife Katharine Cornell, Lillie Messenger, a Hollywood talent scout, Philip Barry, Beatrice Lillie, Elsie Janis, Noël Coward, Eunice Stoddard, Cheryl Crawford and her lover, Dorothy Patten.