Background
Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 22, 1900, the younger of two sons and third of four children of Edward R. Stettinius and Judith Carrington. His mother was a Virginian of colonial English ancestry. His father was of German descent and was a native of St. Louis, Missouri. The younger Stettinius grew up in a mansion on the family's estate on Staten Island.