Like many orphanage wards, Mary Elizabeth and Ivy May Sayre had one living parent who could not care for them and work. According to the Jeffersonville Evening News, September 16, 1919, a county probation officer placed the children, aged 5 and 3, in the orphanage. Their father paid for their care. Years later, the 1930 U.S. Census lists Mary Sayre and Thomas Sayre of the right ages appear living as daughter and father in Cincinnati, but makes no mention of Ivy. It is not known whether the family was ever completely reunited.