Hemingway's Siblings
Dr. Hilary Justice (JFK Library).
Banner image (July 13, 1915) courtesy Clarke Historical Library. Used by permission.
Updated 9/2023.
Ernest Hemingway was the second of six children born to Grace Hall Hemingway and Clarence (Ed) Hemingway.

Hemingway's practice of nicknaming family members began at an extremely young age. As a toddler, he pretended his family were all bears, naming his father "Da Bear" and his elder sister "Sissy Bear." (His nickname for his mother was "Fweetie" ["Sweetie"].) Family nicknames for the Hemingway children are included below.
Marcelline (Marce) Hemingway Sanford
(January 15, 1898-December 9, 1963)
Lecturer on literature and theater. Married Sterling S. Sanford in 1923. Author of At the Hemingways (1962).
Ernest (Ernie) Miller Hemingway
(July 21, 1899-July 2, 1961)
Ursula (Ura) Xavier Hemingway Jepson
(April 29, 1902-October 30, 1966)
Artist; married Jasper J. Jepson. Established the Ernest Hemingway Memorial award for creative writing at the University of Hawaii.
Madelaine (Sunny) Hemingway Mainland Miller
(November 28, 1904-January 14, 1995)
Musician; harpist with the Memphis Symphony. Married (1) Kenneth Mainlaind; (2) Ernest J. Miller; twice widowed. Given family cottage, Windemere, after Ernest Hemingway inherited it from their mother. Author of Ernie: Hemingway's Sister Sunny Remembers (1975).
Carol (Nunbones) Hemingway Gardner
(July 19, 1911-October 27, 2002)
After their father's death in 1928, Ernest Hemingway became Carol's legal guardian. The two had a falling out in 1933 over Carol's relationship with Jack Gardner and never spoke or corresponded again.
Leicester (Les) Clarence Hemingway
(April 1, 1915-September 13, 1982)
Novelist; conservationist. Author of My Brother, Ernest Hemingway (1962). Married (1) Patricia (Patti) Shedd; (2) Doris Mae Dunning.
