Marriages and Later Life
Frances Langford married three times. Her first husband, from 1934 until 1955, was actor Jon Hall. In 1948 they donated 20 acres (81,000 m2) of land near her estate in Jensen Beach, Florida to the Board of County Commissioners of Martin County, which named it Langford Hall Park. Located at 2369 N.E. Dixie Highway just south of the Stuart Welcome Arch, it is known today simply as Langford Park and is one of the county's major parks.
After leaving Hollywood life, she kept up her pastimes of boating and sport fishing. While nightclub singing, in 1955 she married Outboard Marine Corporation President Ralph Evinrude. They lived on her estate in Jensen Beach and built a Polynesian-themed restaurant and marina on the Indian River they named The Frances Langford Outrigger Resort, where Langford frequently performed. Locals and celebrities flocked to the site. Evinrude died in 1986. In 1994, she married Harold C. Stuart, who had served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Affairs of the United States Air Force from 1949 to 1951 under President Harry S. Truman. They spent the summers in Canada on Georgian Island. They journeyed to the Island from their home in Florida aboard their 110 foot yacht "The Chanticleer", which was a popular tourist attraction when moored at the Outrigger Resort. Stuart survived Langford (who had no children); he died in 2007 at the age of 94.
Langford was a supportive member of the Jensen Beach community and constantly donated money to the community. She was a great philanthropist and her generosity to the Florida Oceanographic Society located on Hutchinson Island, Stuart, Florida was well known. The site provides education and research of the ocean, reefs and environment in the Florida area. The visitors center bears her name and also houses some of her artifacts. Her collection of mounted tuna, marlin and other fish adorn the walls.
Health problems plagued her in the last years of her life with periodic hospital stays. She died at her Jensen Beach home at age 92 from congestive heart failure. According to her wishes, she was cremated and the ashes strewn off the coast of Florida near her residence. In 2006, the Frances Langford Heart Center, made possible by a bequest from her estate, opened at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart, Florida.
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