Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale - Marriage and Children

Marriage and Children

Beale pursued an amateur singing career and in 1917 married lawyer/financier Phelan Beale (who worked at her father's law firm Bouvier and Beale) in a lavish ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. The couple lived at 987 Madison Avenue (now the site of the Carlyle Hotel). They had three children: daughter Edith (who was referred to as "Little Edie")—born November 7, 1917, and two sons (Phelan Beale, Jr.—born 1920, and Bouvier Beale—born 1922).

In 1923, Phelan Beale purchased the 28-room "Grey Gardens" mansion at number 3 West End Rd in the Georgica neighborhood of East Hampton, a block from the Atlantic Ocean. The Beales separated in 1931 when Little Edie was 14, with "Big Edie" retaining the Grey Gardens house. Beale received child support, but no form of alimony. She continued to pursue her singing career, giving recitals in her home and at local functions. Her sons went off to college and World War II duty and had families of their own.

When she showed up at her son’s 1942 wedding dressed like an opera star, Edie's father, Major Bouvier, cut her mostly out of his will—leaving her only a small trust of $65,000 (Beale's mother Maude died in 1940 and Major Bouvier died in 1948). Beale became depressed and gained weight. She also had several eye operations in the 1940s. In 1946, Phelan Beale notified her of their divorce via telegram from Mexico. (Little Edie referred to it as a "fake Mexican divorce" because it was not recognized by the Catholic Church.)

Major Bouvier and her son Bouvier "Buddy" Beale urged Beale for many years to sell her "white elephant" Grey Gardens, but she refused.