People

Frederick James Ball was born in Cleveland on March 25, 1919, the son of Frederick L. and Lulu Ball. His family moved to Bratenahl in 1924.  He attended the Bratenahl School through the eighth grade and attended University School, graduating in 1937. He received a B.A. degree from Brown University in 1941 and a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School, being admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1945 and practiced law in Cleveland for over forty years.

Fred married Marjorie Conklin in 1946. A 1944 graduate of Columbia University law school, Marjorie practiced two years in New York with Sullivan & Cromwell.  She was a crusader on the ground level of numerous civil rights causes, using her legal skills to set up organizations like Fair Housing Inc.  In the 1950s, she was an editor for Banks-Baldwin Law Publishing Co.  She set up and was in charge of the referral office at the Legal Aid Society from 1973 to 1976.  Marjorie was studying to take the Ohio bar exam when she became ill with cancer in December 1975 and died at her Bratenahl home on May 23, 1977. She was survived by their children: Peter, Susan (Thompson), Mary (Stuart), and Chris.

Next, Fred married Adele Paddock, who was previously married to Jack Paddock. She died of cancer on July 6, 1984. She had a son, John R. Paddock, Ph.D.

A third marriage was to Mary Hooker Daoust Glendinning, previously married to Dr. Paul Glendinning, who died in 1982. Because she had been known in public life by the Glendinning name, she chose to keep that surname.  Mary was named Civil Libertarian of the Year in 1978 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Cleveland. Ten years earlier she received the Human Relations Award of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity.  The same year she was elected to the Episcopal Diocesan Council, one of the first two women honored.  In 1984, she was appointed by the governor to the board of trustees of the Ohio Historical Society.  Mary had a kidney ailment for 10 years.  She had been in a coma for two weeks at the Cleveland Clinic where she died on September 29, 1985. Mary was survived by three children from her marriage to Dr. Glendinning: Thomas H., Alexander B., and Chellis.

Fred met and married Elizabeth “Ibby” Spurr Hardies, who lived in Cleveland Heights, on July 13, 1986.  They moved to Bratenahl Place.

Elizabeth "Ibby" Snider was born on February 5, 1921, to Monroe and Harriette Hughes Snider. Ibby grew up in Lakewood and graduated from Lakewood High School in 1939. Her mother encouraged her interest in the theater, and Ibby subsequently graduated with an associate of arts degree from the Leland Powers School and Theater in Boston. She attended the University of Hawaii and the University of Maryland, where she obtained her B.A. degree.

On June 5, 1943, she married Robert Spurr, a research chemist, and physicist at Cleveland's National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA). Unfortunately, Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer and died on June 18, 1959.

She met Bobb Hugo Hardies, a naval officer who graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, on December 10, 1960. Unfortunately, Bobb was diagnosed with leukemia and died on April 12, 1975.

Fred and Ibby each had four children. Frederick's children from his marriage to Marjorie were Peter, Susan (Thompson), Mary (Stuart), and Christopher. Ibby's children from her marriage to Robert Spurr were Stephen, Tony, Sophie, and Sarah.

Fred and Ibby traveled to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, England, Russia, Italy, France, and Switzerland. In addition, they traveled throughout the Caribbean on windjammers out of the British West Indie, St. Kitts, and Granada.

In 2005, Ibby became ill and had to move to Judson Manor in University Circle. She died on December 16, 2010. Fred died on February 22, 2017. Both are buried in Lake View Cemetery.