Edith Bouvier Beale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Edith Bouvier Beale (November 7, 1917–January 14, 2002) was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill. She is best known as "Little Edie", one of the subjects of the documentary film Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles. (Her mother was referred to as "Big Edie".)

Contents

[edit] Early life

The only daughter of Phelan Beale, a well-known lawyer, and Edith Ewing Bouvier, she was born at 987 Madison Avenue, now the site of the Carlyle Hotel, New York City. She had two brothers, Phelan and Bouvier Beale. She attended The Spence School and Miss Porter's School, and had her debut at the Pierre Hotel in 1936. While Little Edie was young, her mother pursued a singing career, hiring an accompanist and playing small venues and private parties. It was at this time that Big Edie's husband obtained, as Little Edie described it, a "fake Mexican divorce" and essentially abandoned the family.

In her youth she was a clothes model, primarily in department stores in New York and Palm Beach. She later claimed to have dated J. Paul Getty and to have been engaged to Joe Kennedy, Jr.

She lived for a time (1947-1952) in the Barbizon Hotel in New York City, hoping to find fame and possibly a husband.

[edit] Later life

On July 29, 1952, Edith returned to live with her mother in the East Hampton estate Grey Gardens (on the corner of Lily Pond Lane and West End Road). The home had been purchased for "Big Edie" in 1923, when it still had one of the finest gardens on the East Coast.

After the 1963 death of caretaker and handyman Tom "Tex" Logan, and a crushing burglary in 1968, the women lived in near isolation and increasing and eventually abject poverty. In 1972 they were part of an unsuccessful filming of a documentary on Lee Radziwill's East Hampton youth, but were persuaded the following year to embark on the Maysles' film, Grey Gardens. The benefit of this participation was the promise of film profits, so the women strove to "make good". Profits were not forthcoming.

Freed after her mother's death in 1977, Little Edie attempted to start a singing career in Manhattan cabarets at age 60. Unsuccessful, she sold Grey Gardens in 1979 and moved to Florida. She lived briefly in Montreal in the mid-1990's and with relatives in Oakland in 1997. She returned to Florida in the fall of 1997, where she remained in quiet isolation, writing poetry and corresponding with friends and fans.

[edit] Death

She was discovered dead in her apartment on January 14, 2002, after a concerned fan could not reach her on the phone. She had been dead about 5 days from a presumed heart attack at age 84. She was cremated and a memorial service was held in the local Catholic church in East Hampton.

Arresting in her dress, and entertaining in her speech, Edie has become a cult star. She and her mother were very quotable. Two spreads in Vogue have been dedicated to her unique style. Her former home, Grey Gardens, is also the subject of a song by Rufus Wainwright. An off-Broadway musical "Grey Gardens - A New Musical" debuted in March 2006 starring Christine Ebersole and is now playing on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre. An illustrated biography and motion picture "Grey Gardens" (2007) starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange are under production.

She was survived by three nephews and one niece.

[edit] Sources

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/d/i/Edith_Bouvier_Beale_e5fa.html"