YWCA up until 1945. Personal life Bessie Boies married American YMCA worker Thomas Cotton in 1919; they met when both were working in Russia. They had two children, John Boies Cotton and Deborah Boies Cotton Leighton, and divorced in 1938. Her daughter Deborah remained active in the YWCA. The artist Edna Boies Hopkins was Cotton's sister-in-law for two years, while Edna was married to Bessie's older brother John Henry Boies. They remained friends after John Henry Boies died in 1894. Death Cotton died on April 23, 1959, aged 79 years, in Los Angeles, California. References External links Bessie Boies Cotton papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections 1880 births 1959 deaths American women in World War I People from Hudson, Michigan Smith College alumni University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American people