Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan-Vanderbilt (* August 23, 1904 in Lucerne as Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan , † February 13, 1965 in Hollywood ) was an American high-society lady.
Life
Gloria was the daughter of Harry Hays Morgan and his wife Laura Delphine Kilpatrick. Her father was a diplomat in Buenos Aires and Brussels . Her maternal grandparents were the General of the Union Army and US diplomat in Chile , Hugh Judson Kilpatrick , and Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso . She was a niece of the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile and is said to have been a descendant of the House of Navarre .
Together with her twin sister Thelma , she attended the renowned Swiss boarding school Le Rosey . They moved to New York City at the age of 17 and quickly became a part of high society. On May 12, 1923, the then 19-year-old Gloria married the railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925), the eldest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843–1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1852–1934) and thus grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877). On February 20, 1924, she gave birth to their only daughter, Gloria Laura . The marriage was not a happy one, as her husband became more and more addicted to alcohol , he died in 1925 of complications from alcohol poisoning .
After the death of her husband Gloria moved with her daughter, heiress to a trust fund worth four million US dollars to Europe. Together with her sister Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness, mistress of the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VIII of Great Britain , she belonged to the upper class with her numerous celebrations. In the early 1930s, the Vanderbilt family, especially their sister-in-law Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), worried about the ill influence Gloria had on their daughter. They hired a private investigator to document their way of life, and in 1934 Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt and her sister-in-law were at the center of a high-profile court battle over the custody of the then 10-year-old Gloria Laura. She lost custody of the Vanderbilt family and annual donations from her daughter's inheritance. In the later years she lived with her sister in New York City and Los Angeles . Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt died almost penniless in Hollywood and was buried in the Culver City cemetery. Only a few loyal friends, like Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers , attended the funeral.
Others
In the film Little Gloria (1982), the life of Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt was filmed. She was played by Lucy Gutteridge .
literature
- Gloria Vanderbilt and Thelma Lady Furness: Double Exposure: A Twin Autobiography , D. McKay Co (1958)
- Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt: Double Exposure
- Philip van Rensselaer: That Vanderbilt Woman. Playboy Press et al., Chicago IL et al. 1978, ISBN 0-87223-502-5 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Morgan-Vanderbilt, Gloria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Morgan-Vanderbilt, Gloria Laura Mercedes (full name); Morgan, Gloria Laura Mercedes (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American high society lady |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 23, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lucerne , Switzerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 13, 1965 |
| Place of death | Hollywood , California |