LCDR Reginald S. H. Venable

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=86293353

Husband of actress Fay Bainter. He bacame an admirer of hers from the first time he saw her on the stage, and in 1918, they met. They were engaged for a year before getting married in the Summer of 1920. They did not announce their wedding until the next year.

Venable made the news when he broke Navy regulations by using the destroyer he was in charge of for his own personal use. He redirected the destroyer so that he could be the first to meet Fay's steamer that was returning from a trip she had taken to Europe. Navy secretary Daniels was lenient and smilingly said that Reginald was just "a young man courting."

The couple had one son, Reginald Jr. (23 Jul 1923 - 27 Jun 1974).

Mr. Venable, who resigned from the Navy in 1925 as a Lieutenant Commander, had managed his wife's business affairs and had been a real-estate operator.

He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1913. While engaged to Miss Bainter in 1920, Mr. Venable attracted some attention by an unconventional naval maneuver. At sea in his destroyer, the Ingram, he met the White Star liner Olympic, on which his fiancee was returning to New York from a European vacation. The ships met out from Sandy Hook, and Mr. Venable boarded the liner at Quarantine.

The incident caused some stir among passengers, as some thought the Navy Department had sent the destroyer out to honor John W. Davis, the returning Ambassador to Britain. Navy officials, including Secretary Josephus Daniels, were said to regard the incident as most unusual, but did not consider it a very serious infraction of regulations. (NYTimes; 29 Sep 1964, p.43)