An emaciated baby found by Near East Relief workers in Marash in 1921, named Azadouhi — Armenian for “daughter of freedom” — and the genocide survivor she became.
Dispatches
Daughter of Freedom: Zadi’s Story
Azadouhi as an infant with Dr. Gannaway. Zadi was emaciated and ill when Near East Relief workers in Marash, Turkey took her in.
In Marash, Turkey in 1921, Near East Relief workers found an emaciated baby suffering from malnutrition, dysentery, favus, measles, and pneumonia. They named her Azadouhi, Armenian for “daughter of freedom.” Near East Relief physician Dr. Charles R. Gannaway did not expect her to survive.
Azadouhi had been born in Zeitun two years earlier, in 1919 or 1920. When she was an infant, she and her mother were deported from Cilicia, in southern Turkey. By the time she reached the American hospital at Marash she was barely alive.
Zadi surprised everyone at the hospital by growing strong and healthy. Mrs. Gannaway became especially fond of the little girl. The family began caring for her as their own, and Zadi was popular among Near East Relief workers like Nellie Miller, who enjoyed watching her grow into a lively, talkative child.
Azadouhi at Marash, c. 1921. From the Bayard Dodge photo album, courtesy of the Dodge family.
Mr. McAfee, Dr. and Mrs. Gannaway, and Azadouhi departing Marash, spring 1922. NER vehicle 310. From the Bayard Dodge photo album, courtesy of the Dodge family.
In the spring of 1922, Near East Relief moved approximately three thousand children to Syria from its orphanages and hospitals at Mardin, Urfa, Diyarbekir, and Marash, as Turkish nationalist consolidation of southern Anatolia made the interior stations untenable. The Gannaways traveled with the Marash convoy, taking Zadi with them. They were accompanied by Mr. McAfee, a fellow Near East Relief worker.
Mrs. Gannaway with Zadi on her lap in NER vehicle 310, spring 1922. From the Bayard Dodge photo album, courtesy of the Dodge family.
After several months on the road and at way stations along the route, the Gannaways arrived at Jbeil (Jubail), an NER station on the Lebanese coast north of Beirut, and were posted there as teachers. Zadi spent her early childhood at the station.
Near East Relief used Zadi’s story in its American fundraising appeals. A broadside titled Out of the Jaws of Death paired Zadi’s “before-and-after” photographs with Mrs. Gannaway’s first-person account of the rescue and a tear-off donation form: five dollars sustained a child for a month, sixty dollars for a year. Mrs. Gannaway lectured widely on her experiences as a Near East Relief worker, and Zadi traveled with her to speaking engagements. Zadi became known for her singing voice, performing in English, Armenian, and Turkish for audiences across the country, including for President Calvin Coolidge.
Out of the Jaws of Death: The Story of Little Zadi, Near East Relief fundraising broadside, mid-1920s.
Zadi in the United States, c. 1927, after her adoption by the Gannaways.
Both of Zadi’s biological parents had ultimately survived the deportations and gave Zadi up for adoption, believing she would have a better and more stable life with the Gannaways. When the family returned to the United States, the Gannaways legally adopted her. As an adult, Zadi attended college and earned a degree in nursing. She married Helton Lowe Hale, with whom she had children. Azadouhi Margaret Gannaway Hale died in 2009.