Harry Hood Bassett descends from William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Nathaniel Bassett (b. 1628) and wife Dorcas Joyce
Samuel Bassett (b. 1670) and wife Elizabeth Jones
Samuel Bassett (b. 1700) and wife Alice Weaver
William Bassett (b. 1731) and wife Mary Closson
William Bassett (b. 1753) and wife Avis Burdick
Lewis Bassett (b. 1776) and wife Dorcas Hoxie
Peleg Hoxie Bassett (b. 1800) and wife Cornelia Clarke
William Lewis Bassett (b. 1834) and wife Mary Tammeson Babcock
Harry Hoxie Bassett (b. 1875) and wife Jessie M. Hood
Harry Hood Bassett (b. 1917)
Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1946
The many who knew Harry Hood Bassett when he lived in Chicago and who are winter time neighbors in Palm Beach, Fla., of his mother, Mrs. Edward F. Swenson, will be interested to hear that he is to marry a French woman. His engagement to Marguerite Marie Petitjean was announced recently by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Georges Alfred Petitjean of Strasburg, France. Mr. Bassett, son of the late Harry H. Bassett, is a lieutenant in the army air forces. The wedding is expected to take place immediately in Paris, where he and his bride will live until they come to the United States at the end of August. Lt. Bassett was graduated from Yale in 1940. His fiancée – who might be his bride by now, as the wedding was planned for the end of June – was active with the French resistance forces having been released last May as a captain in the paratroops.
FLORIDA Historic – Dramatic – Contemporary
Family and Personal History (Volume IV)
Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc.
Harry Hood Bassett – With banking on the East Coast of Florida, Harry Hood Bassett has been identified since his graduation from Yale University in 1940, with the very large exception of years out for military service of his country, and civilian aviation patrol activities. As vice president and a director of the First National Bank of Miami, and an official of other financial institutions in the area, he plays an important part in the business world of the city. Of wide personal interests he has entered many phases south Florida life and is exceptionally well known in community activities.
Harry Hood Bassett was born at Flint, Michigan, on May 6, 1917, son of Harry Hoxie and Jessie (Hood) Bassett. His father, who died on October 25, 1926, in Paris, France, was the first vice president of General Motors Company, and president of the Buick Motor Division of this vast corporation. After attending the public schools of Flint and Jackson, Michigan, and a private school in Palm Beach, Florida, the son prepared for higher education in the noted Hotchkiss School at Lakeville, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1936. Matriculating at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, four years later he received his degree of Bachelor of Science in Industrial Administration from its Sheffield Scientific School.
Beginning his business career after leaving Yale, Mr. Bassett in 1940 became assistant trust officer and director of the First National Bank of Palm Beach, Florida. Becoming interested in the Civil Air Patrol of World War II, and organization that did such splendid work with inadequate equipment, he devoted his best attention to this endeavor until he entered the United States Army Air Corps. Before being separated from the Armed Forces in 1946, he had spent some fifteen months overseas in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, with the rank of first lieutenant. Earlier he had been associated with the anti-submarine patrol off the Florida Coast, for which he received the Air Medal. He had enlisted in the United States Air Corps Reserve on September 15, 1942.
Upon his return to civilian life, Mr. Bassett was for some time trust officer and a director of the First National Bank of Palm Beach. In April, 1947, he came to Miami with the First National Bank of this city, being named assistant vice president in June of that year. Since July, 1948, he has been vice president of this substantial financial institution. He likewise is vice president and a director of the Coral Gables First National Bank; remains a director of the First National Bank of Palm Beach, and serves on the boards of directors of the Little River Bank and Trust Company, and the First National Bank of Fort Lauderdale.
In civic, club and social affairs, Mr. Bassett is especially prominent. He serves on the board of trustees of the University of Miami; the board of directors of the Community Chest of Dade County, is an associate member of the Orange Bowl Committee, a member of the Inter-American Cultural and Trade Center Committee, and is a Rotarian. His clubs include the Bath Club of Miami Beach, the Indian Creek Country Club, the LaGorce Country Club, the Key Largo Anglers Club, Cat Key Club of Cat Cay, in the British West Indies, and the Yale Club and the Madison Square Garden Club of New York City. He attends All Souls Episcopal Church.
In July 1, 1946, in Paris, France, Harry Hood Bassett married Marguerite Petitjean, daughter of Georges and Marie Emily (Biersohn) Petitjean. Mr. and Mrs. Bassett are the parents of three children: 1. Harry Hood Jr., born June 27, 1948. 2. and 3. George Rodney and Patrick Glenn, twins, born June 2, 1950.
The Miami Herald, Florida, 5 Aug 1999
Marguerite Petitjean Bassett, 78
Marguerite Petitjean Bassett lived an extraordinary life – devoted mother, society hostess and the first woman to parachute into enemy territory in France during World War II. Bassett, 78, died Sunday.
“She was an extremely kind and loving woman,” said her daughter-in-law, Melissa Bassett. “But at the same time, she was very stern. You really saw the soldier in her.” Bassett, born in Strasbourg, France, in 1921, was trained as a nurse during her teenage years. She volunteered as a Red Cross ambulance driver in 1939. But a single act of cruelty propelled her to become a World War II soldier. Bassett witnesses a Nazi officer shoot a little girl who lived in her town. The incident inspired her to join the French Resistance.
Bassett joined the Free French Forces and went to England, where she received special training by the Royal Air Force. She learned how to parachute and perform dangerous acts of sabotage. When she returned to France, she made her first jump near Lyons and eventually completed 17 missions. Bassett’s assignments supported military actions to disable enemy bridges and power stations. She suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured skull and spine, and her life was often in grave danger. During one sabotage mission, she was captured by two enemy soldiers, her family said. Bassett waited until they fell asleep and then tied them up while holding her .32-caliber gun, which she nicknamed Josephine and kept throughout her life.
Bassett’s missions were so successful that the Germans placed a 10-million-franc ($500,000) price on her head. Known by the code name Binette, she attained the rank of captain and was awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest military decoration in France. She was also a five-time recipient of the Croix de Guerre, a French award for bravery.
When World War II ended in 1945, Bassett cast of her military fashions and immersed herself in the elegant fashions and milieu of high society. At the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, she married American Harry Hood Bassett, whom she had met during the war. They moved to Palm Beach and then to Miami. Harry Hood Bassett became well known in South Florida banking, rising to chairman of Southeast Banking Corp.
Yellowed newspaper clippings show that Marguerite Bassett cut a striking figure in Miami during the 1950s. “Stunning was Mrs. Harry Hood Bassett, co-chairman of the grand ball, wearing a white silk brocaded sheath with a cascade ow white tulle,” reported one Miami Herald column that spotlighted her social standing. “It’s just incredible how she went from her life as a war hero to become part of the social world,” Melissa Bassett said.
After her divorce in 1955, Marguerite Bassett focused her attention on raising three young sons – Harry Hood Jr., Patrick Glenn and George Rodney. “She was always there for the good times and bad times throughout our lives,” her son George recalled. “She was always a supporter, and there was a complete sense of trust between her and the three of us.” In 1959, Allen Dulles, then director of the CIA, honored her and other World War II heroes at a reception at his home.