Jean MacArthur; Widow of Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Jean MacArthur, widow of the late Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who won admirers around the world with her friendly, unassuming manner and “stand by her man” reticence, died Saturday in New York City. She was 101.

The former Jean Marie Faircloth, who had lived in the city’s Waldorf Towers, died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said Col. William Davis, director of the MacArthur Foundation in Norfolk, Va.

Jean MacArthur was at her general’s side in war and peace. She accompanied him aboard a PT boat when he was ordered out of the Philippines to escape a Japanese siege at the outset of the war in the Pacific. She spent the rest of the war in Australia and mingled with throngs of Japanese during the postwar occupation of Japan. Head held high, she shared her husband’s bittersweet homecoming when President Harry S. Truman relieved him of command during the Korean War.

Nearing death in 1964, MacArthur, 18 years her senior, described her as “my constant friend, sweetheart and devoted supporter.”

She had remained active in theater, opera, civic and philanthropic pursuits and served as honorary chairwoman of the foundation created as a memorial to her husband.

But she never, either before or after MacArthur’s death, gave speeches, held news conferences or wrote her memoirs about life with him. When columnist Liz Smith repeatedly urged her to write a book, she always replied, “Oh, I could never do that to my general.”

The riposte was reminiscent of her often repeated phrase during their marriage when she was asked for interviews: “Well, that just depends on the general.” He would always say no, and that was always fine by her.

“Jean MacArthur has witnessed the great cataclysms of our time, survived war and peace, conquered tragedy and known triumph,” President Ronald Reagan said in awarding her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988.

The citation for the medal, the nation’s highest civilian award, called her “a shining example, a woman of substance and character, a loyal wife and mother, and like her general, a patriot.”

“People are so good to me,” she often said.

Jean Marie Faircloth was born in Nashville on Dec. 28, 1898. Her parents divorced when she was very young and her mother took her children to live in their grandfather’s home in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where little Jean became known as “the flag-wavingest girl” in town.

The diminutive raven-haired beauty traveled widely after college and was on her way to China when she met MacArthur aboard ship in 1935. He was headed for Manila to become military advisor to the government of the Philippines.

MacArthur and Faircloth were introduced by the general’s mother. He sent flowers.

“That was that,” Jean MacArthur said later. She debarked in Manila and remained for 1 1/2 years as their romance flowered.

They were married in a quiet ceremony in New York on April 30, 1937. It was his second marriage, her first. She would not return to the United States for 14 years.

Their son, Arthur, was born in Manila in 1938.

Jean MacArthur, while unassuming in public, strenuously guarded her family’s private life. They entertained only during lunch; their evenings often included private showings of movies.

Despite her husband’s status, she patiently waited in line at Army stores and commissaries, not asking any special privileges.

“She was appreciative, sensitive, charming and completely wonderful,” Rosario A. Sobral, former secretary to Jean MacArthur, told The Times in April 1951, shortly after Truman recalled MacArthur. “She was faithful to two objectives: to keep a quiet, smooth-running home for the general’s peace of mind and to help the troops in any way possible and their loved ones at home. These were her share in the war effort--not just the obligations of a commander’s wife, but born of deep understanding and sympathy.”

Jean MacArthur will be buried beside her husband at the MacArthur Memorial in Virginia, a domed building dating from 1850 that once served as Norfolk’s City Hall. It is now part of a complex that includes the Jean MacArthur Research Center, which houses her husband’s archives. She personally dedicated the center in 1990, accompanied by her friend, Barbara Bush.

She is survived by her son and a sister, Angie McCarthy, of Murfreesboro, Tenn.