Jane Kendall Mason

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Jane Kendall Mason (1909 - 1981) was an American debutante, socialite, and outdoorswoman.

Biography

Mason was born Jane Welsh in 1909. A decade later, her mother Elizabeth, a divorcée who sang at private parties for members of New York City's upper class, began a relationship with the divorced Wall Street tycoon Lyman Kendall, who was worth an estimated $20 million. [1] Kendall and her mother married, and he legally adopted Mason. [1] The family moved to Tuxedo Park, New York and maintained residences in Miami and Washington, D.C., and sailed to Europe for extended stays. [1]

Mason was educated at exclusive private schools, where she showed promise in drawing and sculpture, and competed as an equestrian at Madison Square Garden. [1] In her teenage years, the family lived at Kentsdale, an 1,000 acre estate near Potomac, Maryland, and were members of the Congressional Country Club. [1] [2]

When she was seventeen years old, she was presented as a debutante at two different balls in Washington, D.C. [1]

In 1927, at the age of eighteen, she married George Grant Mason, Jr. in an elaborate society wedding at her family's estate. [1] Mason, a graduate of Yale University, was from a wealthy family and served as head of Pan-American Airways' Caribbean operations in Cuba. [1] [3] The Masons moved to Jaimanitas, a large estate west of Havana that was staffed by nine servants. [1] It was here that Mason became known as a glamorous and eccentric socialite, hosting parties and attending events at clubs, casinos, and horse races. [1]

In September 1931 Mason and her husband were introduced to Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, while sailing on the SS Île de France . [1] [4]

Former U.S. First Lady Grace Coolidge referred to Mason as "the most beautiful debutante who ever entered the White House." [5] American portraitist Howard Chandler Christy called her "one of the very best types of American girl." [1] Ernest Hemingway, with whom she was close friends and occasionally romantically involved, referred to her as "about the most uninhibited person I ever met." [1] She and Hemingway began an affair in 1932. [1]

In 1932, she wrote an article titled Resorting to Havana for Vogue . [6]

Mason, who could not conceive children, adopted two British boys, and Hemingway was named the godfather of the elder son. [1] On a safari with Bror Blixen, Mason shot a zebra foal and had it made into a rocking horse for her children. [1] She was an avid sportswoman and big game hunter, shooting elephants and rhinoceroses, and also went on big game fishing excursions. [1] [4]

Hemingway based the characters Richard Bradley and Helène Bradley in To Have and Have Not on the Masons. [1] [7] He also based the character Margot Macomber in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber on Mason. [1]

She modelled in advertisements for Pond's cold cream. [1]

In 1940 she divorced her first husband, George Grant Mason, Jr., who was a member of the Civil Aeronautics Board in Tampa, Florida. [5] A month later she married Republican politician and lawyer John Daniel Miller Hamilton, two days after he resigned as executive director of the Republican National Committee. [5] This marriage ended after she had an affair with the editor of Reader's Digest . [1] Then she married Arnold Gingrich in 1955, who she had previously been involved with while also being involved with Hemingway. [1] [4] She and Gingrich lived at different residences in New York before settling in Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1962.

In 1964 she suffered a stroke that left her semi-invalid for the rest of her life. [1] After the stroke, M.F.K. Fisher described her in a 1968 letter as "a hopeless and completely helpless paralytic and ex-alcoholic cared for like a rare orchid." [1] Fisher and Mason's husband engaged in an affair at that time. [1]

She survived a suicide attempt in 1933, jumping off the balcony at her Cuban residence, and underwent months of intensive psychotherapy. [1] [7]

In 1935, while on safari in East Africa, she had a romantic dalliance with Colonel Richard Cooper, a British officer who owned a coffee plantation in Tanganyika. [1]

She died in 1981. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 "American Woman". 6 May 2021.
  2. ↑ Orton, Kathy (10 January 2020). "Villa in Potomac, Md., has been financier's home, convent school". Real Estate. Washington Post . Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "MISS JANE KENDALL TO WED G.G. MASON; Washington Debutante Engaged to New Yorker, a Graduate of Yale. IN SCHOOL OF AVIATION Fiance Expects to Join U.S.A. Air Forces Next Autumn -- Other Engagements". The New York Times. 3 January 1927.
  4. 1 2 3 "Hemingway | Classic Chicago Magazine". 21 July 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Milestones, Nov. 18, 1940 - TIME". www.time.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  6. ↑ "Resorting to Havana | Vogue | JANUARY 1, 1932".
  7. 1 2 "A Comedy with Animals".
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