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.
Read more about this topic: Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or children:
“We lov’d, and we lov’d, as long as we could,
Till our love was lov’d out in us both;
But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled:
‘Twas pleasure first made it an oath.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Every society consists of men in the process of developing from children into parents. To assure continuity of tradition, society must early prepare for parenthood in its children; and it must take care of the unavoidable remnants of infantility in its adults. This is a large order, especially since a society needs many beings who can follow, a few who can lead, and some who can do both, alternately or in different areas of life.”
—Erik H. Erikson (1904–1994)