Millicent Hearst
Millicent Hearst | |
---|---|
Hearst Corporation | |
Spouse | [2] |
Children | |
Parent(s) | George Willson Hannah Murray Willson[1] |
Relatives | Anita Willson (older sister) |
Millicent Veronica Hearst (née Willson; July 16, 1882 – December 5, 1974), was the wife of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Willson was a vaudeville performer in New York City whom Hearst admired, and they married in 1903. The couple had five sons, but began to drift apart in the mid-1920s, when Millicent became tired of her husband's longtime affair with actress Marion Davies.[1][3]
Life and career
Millicent was the daughter of vaudevillian George Willson and Hannah Murray Willson.
Millicent Hearst gave birth to five sons:
Millicent was a member of the New York State Commission for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915 and acted as chief official hostess at the New York Pavilion during the exposition.[4]
New York City Mayor John Hylan appointed her chairman of the Mayor’s Committee of Women on National Defense during World War I. The committee sponsored entertainments for servicemen, operated a canteen, encouraged enlistments, sponsored patriotic rallies, and provided staples such as coal, milk, and ice to the needy. Hearst also served on wartime committees to raise funds for the rebuilding of France and the relief of French orphans.[1]
In 1921, she founded the Free Milk Fund for Babies, which provided free milk to the poor of New York City for decades. She also hosted charitable fundraisers for a variety of causes, including crippled children, unemployed girls, the New York Women’s Trade League, the
The Hearsts were married until W.R. Hearst's death in 1951. They never divorced, in part due to her Catholicism,[3] but were estranged starting in 1926 when his liaison with Marion Davies became public. Millicent Hearst sought a divorce from W.R. Hearst in 1937, but the divorce fell through when she insisted on Cosmopolitan magazine as part of her property settlement, to which W.R. Hearst would not agree.[3]
Millicent Hearst established a separate life and residence in New York City as a socialite and philanthropist, rarely visiting her husband at their estate in San Simeon, California, known as Hearst Castle. She remained close to her five sons throughout her life.[1]
Millicent Willson Hearst died on December 5, 1974, more than two decades after the death of her husband, and was buried at the
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Millicent Hearst". Hearst Castle, Historic People. HearstCastle.org, (California State Parks). Retrieved April 14, 2014.
- ^ Amanda Pollak, Stephen Ives (September 27, 2021). Citizen Hearst: An American Experience Special, Part I (video with transcript) (Documentary). PBS. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c Amanda Pollak, Stephen Ives (September 28, 2021). Citizen Hearst: An American Experience Special, Part II (Documentary). PBS. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
- ^ State of New York at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915 (Albany, 1916; pg. 28)
External links
- Finding Aid to the Millicent Willson Hearst Papers, 1914-1947 (bulk 1926-1935) at The Bancroft Library