| Frances Ford Seymour | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 14, 1908 Brockville, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | April 14, 1950 (aged 42) Beacon, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Socialite |
| Spouse | George Tuttle Brokaw (m. 1931–1935) , his death; 1 child Henry Fonda (m. 1936–1950) , her death; 2 children |
| Children | Frances de Villers Brokaw Jane Fonda Peter Fonda |
| Parents | Eugene Ford Seymour Sophie Mildred Bower |
Frances Ford Seymour (April 14, 1908 – April 14, 1950) was a socialite, the second wife of actor Henry Fonda and the mother of actors Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda.
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Born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, she was the daughter of Eugene Ford Seymour and Sophie Mildred (née Bower; July 13, 1886 – April 15, 1974). Among her first cousins was Mary Benjamin Rogers, the first wife of Standard Oil millionaire Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr. Her father, an attorney, was descended from Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset who was brother to Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour.[1]
On January 10, 1931, she married George Tuttle Brokaw, a millionaire lawyer and sportsman, whose previous marriage, to Clare Boothe Luce, had ended in divorce. They had one child, Frances de Villers Brokaw (1931–2008, known as "Pan"), who later married Francesco Corrias, and became a painter. The Corrias had a daughter, gallery owner Pilar Corrias.[2]
A year after George Tuttle Brokaw died, his widow married actor Henry Fonda on September 16, 1936, at Christ Church, New York City. The couple had two children, actors Jane and Peter.
Frances Ford Seymour suffered from mental illness and committed suicide by cutting her throat with a razor on her 42nd birthday while in the Craig House Sanitarium for Insane in Beacon, New York.