Sweet, Marie Phelps, 1893-1967 : Marie Phelps Sweet was born in New York State in 1893. She was an activist involved in a wide variety of causes. She supported Margaret Sanger and the right for women to obtain birth control in the 1920s. In the 1930s she fought against racism and in the 1940s she ran for office in Westchester County, New York on a democratic platform that included greater rights for minorities. Marie Phelps Sweet was a member of the NAACP, a founder of the organization Women Outlawing War and was an active member in Women's Strike for Peace. She also joined VISTA and taught painting to native children on an Indian reservation in Oregon. She co-authored Some Hints on Fasting Well with Hereward Carrington. A firm believer in spiritualism and psychic phenomenon, she was secretary of the American Psychical Institute, and was a pioneer member of the Life Extension Society, becoming the first Society coordinator in California. Marie Phelps Sweet was married three times. Her marriage to Hereward Carrington in 1932 was her second marriage. She married Russ La Croix Van Norden in California after Hereward's death. Marie Phelps Sweet died in 1967 at the age of 74. In accordance with her wishes she was cryogenically frozen. She was one of the first Americans to attempt this process of life extension, but in the early 1970s she was buried in a Los Angeles cemetery.
Carrington, Hereward, 1880-1958 : Hereward Carrington was born in Jersey, Channel Islands, England in 1880. In 1899 he emigrated to the United States. He obtained his Ph.D. from Oskaloosa, Iowa in 1918. Carrington was one of two delegates to the first International Psychical Congress, Cophenhagen, Denmark in 1921. He was also a member of the Scientific American Committee of Five (along with Harry Houdini) which investigated the phenomena of Spiritualism. Carrington married Marie Sweet Smith in 1932. He was the founder of the American Psychical Institute and the author of numerous books and articles on spiritualism and psychic phenomenon. Hereward Carrington died in 1958.
