Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
| Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Edith Ewing Bouvier October 5, 1895 Nutley, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | February 5, 1977 (aged 81) Southampton, New York, U.S. |
| Residence | Grey Gardens |
| Other names | Big Edie |
| Spouse(s) | Phelan Beale (1917–1931) |
| Children |
Edith Bouvier Beale Phelan Beale, Jr. Bouvier Beale |
| Parent(s) | John Vernou Bouvier II Maude Sergeant Bouvier |
| Relatives | aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Lee Radziwill |
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (October 5, 1895 – February 5, 1977) was an American socialite and amateur singer, known for her eccentric lifestyle. She was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and the aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Her life and relationship with her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale were highlighted in the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.
She was the daughter of John Vernou Bouvier, Jr. and Maude Frances Sergeant, the paternal grandparents of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Beale's mother was the daughter of a wealthy paper manufacturer, and her father was a successful attorney who was appointed Major in the Judge Advocate Corps of the United States Army during World War I. He liked to be addressed as Major Bouvier and later invented a faux royal mythos of his Bouvier lineage in the privately printed Our Forebears, which gave his grandchildren the following quote: "The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility."
Beale enjoyed a privileged upbringing along with her brothers John Vernou Bouvier III, William Sergeant "Bud" Bouvier (1893–1929), who died at a young age from alcoholism, and her red-headed twin sisters Maude Reppelin Bouvier Davis (1905–1999), mother of writer John H. Davis, and Michelle Caroline Bouvier Scott Putman (1905–1987). Beale enjoyed photography, theatrical arts, and as a youth considered becoming a surgeon from her interest in physiology.
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., 1920-1993, and Bouvier Beale, 1922-1994).
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