- Madeleine Astor
Madeleine Force Astor (
June 19 ,1893 –March 27 ,1940 ) the wife ofJohn Jacob Astor IV .Early life
Madeleine Talmage Force was born on
June 19 ,1893 inBrooklyn ,New York to William Hurlbut Force and Katherine Arvilla Tamlage. She had a sister, Katherine Emmons Force.She first met
John Jacob Astor IV , one of the richest men in theUnited States , in Bar Harbor, Maine while she was still in school. OnSeptember 9 ,1911 the eighteen-year-old Madeleine married the forty-seven year old John Jacob Astor in Beechwood, the Astor family'sNewport, Rhode Island home.Titanic
John Jacob Astor was one of the 1,500 people who died in the disaster, and his partially crushed body was recovered on
April 22 . Madeleine and the other survivors were rescued by the RMS "Carpathia" and afterwards Madeleine did not talk about the disaster except to mention her last memory of the sinking was seeing John Jacob Astor's pet Airedale, Kitty, pacing on the deck.Post Titanic
Madeleine gave birth to
John Jacob Astor VI , named after his father, onAugust 14 ,1912 . According to John Jacob Astor's will, Madeleine would have received income from a $5,000,000trust fund as long as she did not remarry.Remarriages
Madeleine's first remarriage was on June 22, 1916, in Bar Harbor, Maine. She married her childhood friend and banker
William Karl Dick (1888-1953), who at twenty-eight years old was vice president of theManufacturers Trust Company of New York and a part owner and director of theBrooklyn Times . As stated in the will, Madeleine lost her stipend from the trust fund and the right to live in the Astor mansion inManhattan . During the marriage they had two sons: William Karl Dick, Jr. and John Henry Dick. The marriage to William Dick did not last and they divorced on July 21, 1933 inReno, Nevada .Just 4 months later on November 27, 1933 Madeleine married twenty-six-year-old Italian boxer
Enzo Fiermonte in a civil ceremony in New York City. They divorced five years later on June 11, 1938 inWest Palm Beach, Florida and Madeleine went back to using the surname Dick.Death
Madeleine Force Astor Dick died of a serious heart ailment in
Palm Beach, Florida , in 1940 at the age of forty-six. She was buried inTrinity Church Cemetery in New York City.External links
*cite web | author=Behe, George, Phillip Gowan, Hermann Sōldner | title=Mrs Madeleine Talmage Astor (nèe Force) | work=Encyclopedia Titanica | url=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/12/ | accessmonthday=July 15 | accessyear=2005
*cite news | title=Mrs. Fiermonte Dead in Florida | date=March 29 ,1940 | publisher=New York Times | url=http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/3259/ |accessdate=2008-08-02
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6596962 Madeleine Astor] at Find-A-Grave
* [http://www.titanic-passengers.com/madeleineastor.htm Madeleine Astor] at Titanic-Passengers.com
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