Charles Osborne Laney and Marie Elizabeth Laney

Caribbean Estates was developed in 1970 from a section of farmland purchased from Marie Byrne Laney. Caribbean Estates sits between Mediterranean Gardens and Lakeland Hills and consists of Bacardi Drive and the odd side of the 8500, 8600, and 8700 blocks of Capri Dr.

Marie Byrne Laney (1897-1976) was the widow of Charles Osborne Laney (1885-1929) a pharmacist, lawyer, and state legislator. He was first elected in May 1914 and to three subsequent terms from 1915 - 1921, among his significant legislative accomplishments were authoring a 1917 gun control bill requiring gun owners obtain a license, pay a tax, and keep records of sales, co-sponsoring a bill granting women the right to vote in presidential elections, and co-sponsor of a resolution ratifying the national Nineteenth Amendment establishing women’s suffrage.

Laney married Marie Elizabeth Byrne on May 7, 1919, during his third term in the legislature. She fit well in with Dallas society and acted in plays as a member of the Shakespeare Study Club. Charles and Marie had a son, Charles Osborne Laney Jr., in 1920.Charles Osborne Laney took his own life in his home in Dallas on June 3, 1929. The reasons for the suicide are unclear; however, the Texas Mesquiter reported the rumor that “he had become despondent over domestic difficulties.” Through an inquest at the request of Judge John Baldwin, his cause of dath was determined to be self-administered poisioning, accomplished by taking a solution of hydrogen cyanide. - Texas State Historical Association

Photograph: Charles Osborne Laney, 1921, courtesy of Texas State Historical Association - Highland meadows preservation Foundation