 McCay stood barely five feet ( 150 cm ) tall , and felt dominated by his wife , who was nearly as tall as he was . McCay married Maude Leonore Dufour , the youngest of three daughters of French @-@ Canadian carriage painter John Dufour . About a decade separated the couple 's ages : Winsor was 24 and Maude only 14 when they married . Biographer Canemaker speculates this may explain the lack of certainty behind McCay 's birthdate , even by McCay himself , as he may have claimed to be younger than he was to justify marrying a teenage girl . Maude was also notably age @-@ conscious , as she preferred her grandchildren to call her " Nan " instead of " Grandma " and also dyed her hair as she got older . The McCays took on the traditional roles of a married couple of the time , in that Winsor was the breadwinner and Maude the homemaker . Neither spouse got along well with the other 's mother . 
