Emma Beach Thayer was one of Helena’s and Maria’s and Mary’s classmates at The Cooper Union studying art. Helena and Henry James knew her from Newport when they were all teenagers. Her father was the publisher of a New York City newspaper and they were very close to Henry Ward Beecher. Her mother had Beecher’s baby. Her father and Emma were on the “The Quaker City” tour of Europe with Mark Twain, mostly because her father couldn’t deal with her mother’s affair with Beecher. She dropped out of Cooper Union. She was close to Abbott Thayer, the artist, and to Kate Bloede who married Thayer. When Kate went nuts and had to be institutionalized, Emma took care of their children. Thayer married her after Kate died.