Editing Kay Summersby (section)

==Early life==

Summersby was born in [[Ballydehob]], [[County Cork]], Ireland.<ref name="Census entry">Entry in [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002028655/ Census of Ireland, 1911]</ref><ref name="Wyden">Wyden, Barbara, ''Papers, 1944–1945'', [[Eisenhower Presidential Center|Dwight D. Eisenhower Library]], Abilene, Kansas</ref> She was the daughter of Donald Florence MacCarthy-Morrogh and Vera Mary MacCarthy-Morrogh (née Hutchinson). Her father, descended from the [[Mac Carthaigh Riabhach|
MacCarthy Reagh]] Princes of Carbery, was originally from [[County Kerry]], and her mother was born in [[Wales]],<ref name="Census entry"/> as the fourth of five sisters, to an English father and Irish mother who was also descended from the Morrogh family.<ref name="Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland 1958">1958 edition of Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland</ref>

She described her father, a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the [[Royal Munster Fusiliers]], as "black Irish" and her mother as English. As a young woman, she moved to London where she worked as a film studio extra, dabbled in photography, and eventually became a fashion model. She was married in 1936 to British Army officer Gordon Thomas Summersby; when they divorced in 1943,<ref>{{cite news | title=Wedding Plans: Morgan-Summersby | newspaper=[[The Journal News]], White Plains, New York | date=1952-11-21 }}</ref> she retained the name of her ex-husband,<ref name="Wyden"/> as is usual. There was an engagement to marry US Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Richard "Dick" Arnold that overlapped her initial period with Eisenhower; however, this ended with the death of her fiancé while mine clearing during the North Africa campaign.<ref>{{cite book|last=Korda|first=Michael|title=Ike: An American Hero|date=September 2007|publisher=harper collins|isbn=978-0-06-075665-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/ikeamericanhero00kord/page/385 385]|url=https://archive.org/details/ikeamericanhero00kord/page/385}}</ref><ref name="mulligan19950528" />