Edith Halsey Lay, daughter of (Thomas) Walcott and Martha E. Arnold Lay, was born in Washington, D. C., June 10, 1869 (though on various documents she reported the year of her birth as 1870, 1871, and 1873). The 1870 and 1880 federal censuses list Lay as a resident in the Washington home of her parents. Her name appears several times in the society pages of Washington newspapers throughout the 1890s, and by the time of the 1900 census, she was living in the Washington home of Eva Bennett. By 1909, Lay was employed as a servant/companion in the Samuel (or Charles) Matthewson home, New York City, where she remained as late as 1911. The 1920 census again lists her as a Manhattan resident, employed in a department store. In 1922, she traveled to Mexico City, Mexico, where she married Dr. Henry Arthur Geitz (1874-1961) on August 19, 1922. Edith Lay Geitz died in Monterrey, Mexico on August 9, 1952, and was buried in Panteon del Roble, Monterrey.