Gertrude Sanford Legendre
Gertrude Sanford Legendre | |
---|---|
Born | Gertrude Ellen Sanford 29 March 1902 |
Died | 8 March 2000 | (aged 97)
Resting place | Medway, South Carolina, US |
Known for | Hunter, spy, socialite |
Spouse(s) | Sidney J. Legendre (1929–1948) |
Children | 2 |
Gertrude Sanford Legendre (March 29, 1902 – March 8, 2000) was an American socialite who served with the
Early life
Born in Aiken, South Carolina, she was the daughter of New York rug magnate and member of the
Gertrude was the youngest of three children, and she, her brother Stephen Sanford – an internationally recognized polo player known as Laddie – and her sister Sarah Jane Sanford were said to have been the inspiration for Philip Barry's 1928 play Holiday. The play was made into a 1930 film, starring Ann Harding, Mary Astor, and Robert Ames, and a 1938 film, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Gertrude, who always went by the nickname Gertie, was reared in
She was engaged to the actor Harry Fender in 1927.[5]
Big-game hunting
While still in her teens, Gertrude embarked on her first hunting trip to the
During her exploration of Abyssinia (more commonly called Ethiopia) for the American Museum of Natural History as part of the Sanford-Legendre Abyssinia Expedition in 1928-29, she fell in love with the expedition's co-leader Sidney J. Legendre of New Orleans.[6][7]
Marriage and family
Gertrude Sanford married the expedition's co-leader Sidney J. Legendre on 17 September 1929 in New York. Following their marriage, the couple purchased one of South Carolina's oldest surviving plantations, Medway, to make their home. Medway was in derelict condition, and they restored the home and the grounds over many years. It eventually became a successful timber operation.
The couple had two daughters, Landine Legendre Wood Manigault, born 1933; and Bokara Legendre, born 1940. Landine's first husband was Peter Hodgson Wood of Cross River, New York. With him she had two children: Peter Sanford Harrison Wood, born 1954; and Wendeney LeGendre Wood, born 1955. Her second husband was Peter Manigault (1927-2004), chairman of The
World War II/OSS
When World War II began, both Sidney and Gertrude Legendre served their country. Sidney joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed in Hawaii. Gertrude worked in Washington and later London for the
In late September 1944 she became the first American woman in uniform captured in Germany[10] when, on an unauthorized visit to the front near Luxembourg, she found herself pinned down by German sniper fire, along with two OSS officers and their driver. Held as a prisoner of war for six months, she narrowly escaped on a train to Switzerland. As the train stopped just short of the border she dashed from the train while a German guard shouted orders for her to halt or be shot. She continued and secured her freedom.[11]
After the war, Mrs. Legendre helped a German SS officer who had been kind to her emigrate to the United States and assisted others who had helped her during her imprisonment by sending them food and other necessities.[12] She also established the Medway Plan to pair American cities and individuals with cities and individuals in Europe devastated by the war.[13]
Later life and legacy
In 1947, Gertrude and her husband Sidney joined an expedition to India led by
In her later years, Gertrude established the Medway Environmental Trust for educational purposes and to ensure that her beloved home, Medway, would forever be managed as a nature preserve. In the 1980s and 1990s, she granted conservation easements on her landmark house to the Historic Charleston Foundation and on most of the property to Ducks Unlimited.[15]
Until nearly the end of her life, Mrs. Legendre gave a traditional New Year's Eve costume party at Medway. At one of the last of those parties, she offered a toast: "I look ahead. I always have. I don't contemplate life. I live it, and I'm having the time of my life."[16]
She wrote two memoirs, The Sands Ceased to Run (1947)[17] and The Time of My Life (1987).[18] She is the subject of the book Gertie: The Fabulous Life of Gertrude Sanford Legendre, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy (2019)[19] and A Guest of the Reich (2019).[20] She died at the age of 97, at Medway, on March 8, 2000. It was the same day and month of Sidney's death. Her ashes were buried beside his grave in the plantation cemetery.[21]
References
- ^ Siemiatkoski, Donna H (1990). The Descendents of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut, 1590-1658, and His Wife, Alice Tomes. Gateway Press.
- ^ Sanford Historical Society, "General Henry S. Sanford." "General Henry S. Sanford". Archived from the original on 20 July 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-618-00190-3.
- ^ "The Gertrude Sanford Legendre papers" (PDF). cofc.edu. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
- ^ "Harry Fender for Society Via Altar." Variety. Vol. 87, Iss. 6, (May 25, 1927): 1, 34. Via Proquest.
- ^ Legendre, Gertrude. The Time of My Life. p. 69.
- ^ Nemy, Enid (13 March 2000). "Gertrude Sanford Legendre, 97, Socialite Turned Hunter and Prisoner of War". The New York Times.
- ^ . “A Life Less Ordinary: The Legendary Adventures of Lowcountry Socialite Gertrude Legendre, Charleston Magazine, October 2005, pp. 70-74.
- ^ Legendre, Bokara. Not What I Expected. pp. 98, 121–22.
- ISBN 9781524747336.
- ^ Finn, Peter (25 September 2019). "How Gertie Legendre became the first American woman in uniform captured by the Nazis - The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
- ISBN 0-941711-02-1.
- ^ Robb, Alex M. (1969). The Sanfords of Amsterdam. New York: William-Frederick Press. p. 188–89.
- ^ Legendre, Gertrude. The Time of My Life.
- ISBN 978-1-929647-19-4.
- ^ "Gertrude Legendre". 13 March 2000.
- OCLC 3569831.
- OCLC 16581108.
- ^ "Gertie: The fabulous life of Getrude Sanford Legendre, Heiress, Explorer, Socialite, Spy". Moultrie News.
- ^ Hodgson, Moira (October 2019). "'A Guest of the Reich' Review: The Honored Prisoner - WSJ". Wall Street Journal.
- ISBN 978-1-5043-7341-8.
Further reading
- Peter Finn: A guest of the Reich : the story of American heiress Gertrude Legendre and her dramatic captivity and daring escape from Nazi Germany, New York : Pantheon Books, [2019], ISBN 978-1-5247-4733-6
External links
- Gertrude Sanford Legendre Papers at the College of Charleston