Jennie Churchill

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Jeanette (Jennie) Jerome CI DStJ, known also as Lady Randolph Churchill (January 9, 1854 – June 9, 1921) was an American society beauty, best known to history as the mother of British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Marriage and adultery 2.1 Later marriages 3 Death and after 4 Footnotes / References 5 Further reading 6 External links

[edit] Early life

She was born at 197 Amity Street^[1], in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, New York^[2]. She was the middle daughter of financier Leonard Jerome and his wife, Clara Hall.

An unsubstantiated legend has it that Leonard Jerome, a man who loved opera, named his second daughter after the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, with whom her purportedly had an affair (doubtful, as Lind was highly moralistic in her personal life). There is no evidence that Lind and Jerome ever met.

A noted beauty—an admirer said that there was "more of the panther than of the woman in her look"—Lady Randolph Churchill also worked as a magazine editor and bore a fashionable tattoo of a snake twined around her wrist, which she hid with a bracelet when required.^{[citation needed]} Hall family lore insists that Jennie was part Iroquois, but no evidence of any Native American ancestry has yet been uncovered, despite much genealogical digging[1]. Moshe Kohn, in an article in The Jerusalem Post on 18 January 1993 alleges that the Jerome family name was originally Jacobson, and that Jennie's ethnic ancestry was, in fact Jewish, at least on her father's side.

[edit] Marriage and adultery

Long considered one of the most beautiful women of the time, she married, first, in 1874, at the British Embassy in Paris, France, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895), third son of John Winston Spencer-Churchill, the 7th Duke of Marlborough, having met him only three days before.

By this marriage, she acquired the title "Lady Randolph Churchill." They had two sons: Winston Churchill (1874–1965) and John Strange Spencer-Churchill (1880–1947). As was the custom of the day, she played a limited role in her sons' upbringing, relying largely upon nannies such as Winston's beloved Mrs. (Elizabeth) Everest. Winston completely worshipped his mother, writing her numerous letters during his time away from home at school, begging her to visit him, which she rarely did. However, after he became an adult, she and he became good friends and strong allies, to the point where Winston regarded her almost as a political mentor more as a sister than as a mother.

Jennie was influential in the uppermost British social and political circles. She was said to be appealing and pleasing to be around, considered to be a strong personality, witty, intelligent, said to have laughed often, and was well respected. It was said that Alexandra of Denmark especially enjoyed her company, finding her appealing and enjoyable, despite the fact that Jennie had been involved in an affair with Alexandra's husband, Edward VII, a fact that was well known by Alexandra. [2] Through her family contacts and her extra-marital romantic relationships, Jennie greatly helped Lord Randolph's early career as well as that of her eldest son Winston.

It has been long rumored that her second son, John Churchill, was not fathered by her husband Lord Randolph, but instead was possibly the son of an Irish nobleman, Col. John Strange Jocelyn, 5th Earl of Roden (1823–1897), with whom she is believed to have had an affair. That seems unlikely, however, given the similarity of names, which would seem a bit obvious under the circumstances that this was an alleged secret affair. She did, however, have numerous lovers during her marriage, including Count Charles Andreas Kinsky, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and King Milan of Serbia, the more prominent ones with the full knowledge of her husband.

[edit] Later marriages

Five years after the death of Lord Randolph, she married George Cornwallis-West (1874–1951) in 1900, a captain in the Scots Guards. During this time she achieved notoriety by charting a hospital ship to care for those wounded in the Boer War. It was during this marriage, in 1908, that she wrote The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill. They separated in 1912 and were divorced in April 1914. It should be noted that Cornwallis-West was only 16 days older than her son Winston.

Jennie then married a third time, in 1918, to Montague Phippen Porch (1877–1964), a member of the British Civil Service in Nigeria and some three years Winston's junior.

Throughout her life, and all three marriages, Jennie conducted extra-marital affairs. In the early years this was generally for the social and political strengthening of her first husband's position. Her second and third husbands were both more than 20 years younger than she; the year she married Lord Randolph was the year her second husband was born, and three years before her third husband's birth.

During her first marriage, regardless of her affairs, her loyalty was always to Lord Randolph. She supported his causes, and wielded considerable power behind the scenes, even to the degree of writing many of his speaches. Her second and third marriages seemed to have never held that loyalty which she showed for him.

Even after the death of Lord Randolph, Jerome preferred to be known as "Lady Randolph Churchill" despite her re-marriages, and even though she was not strictly entitled to this style any longer, she was so well received in royal circles that no one seemed to object.

[edit] Death and after

Jennie died in 1921 at the age of 67 after surgery to remove a gangrenous leg, and is buried in the Churchill family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, near her first husband and sons.

After her death her third husband, Porch, married in 1926 his second wife, Donna Giulia Patrizi (died 1938), a daughter of the Marchese Patrizi della Rocca.

According to legend, she was also responsible for the invention of the "Manhattan" cocktail. She commissioned a bartender for a special drink to celebrate the election of Samuel J. Tilden to the governorship in 1874. The party was held at the Manhattan Club, and the drink was named after the club.

Jennie Churchill has been portrayed on screen by the late actress Lee Remick in the American television series, Jennie, and by the late actress Anne Bancroft in the film, Young Winston.

[edit] Footnotes / References

1. ^ Formerly 8 Amity Street
2. ^ 426 Henry Street is incorrectly cited in some sources

[edit] Further reading

• Churchill, Randolph Spencer, Lady. The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill, 1908. (Autobiography.)
• Lady Randolph Churchill: The Story of Jennie Jerome, authored by Anita Leslie, published in 1968.

• Ralph G. Martin, Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill - The Romantic Years, 1854-1895 (Prentice-Hall, Ninth printing, 1969)

• Ralph G. Martin, Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill - Volume II, The Dramatic Years, 1895-1921 (Prentice-Hall, 1971) ISBN 0-13-509760-6

[edit] External links

• Portrait at National Portrait Gallery, London