Bessie Wallis Warfield
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==Bessie Wallis Warfield== | ==Bessie Wallis Warfield== | ||
| − | Bessie Wallis Warfield was born on 19 June 1896 in Square Cottage, Monterey Inn, Blue Ridge Summit, Franklin County, [[Pennsylvania]], as the daughter of [[#Teackle Wallis Warfield|Teackle Wallis Warfield]] and [[#Alice M Montague|Alice M. Montague]]. They were at that resort due to a futile attempt to cure Teackle's tuberculosis. | + | Bessie Wallis Warfield was born on 19 June 1896 in Square Cottage, Monterey Inn, Blue Ridge Summit, Franklin County, [[Pennsylvania]], as the daughter of [[#Teackle Wallis Warfield|Teackle Wallis Warfield]] and [[#Alice M Montague|Alice M. Montague]]. They were at that resort due to a futile attempt to cure Teackle's tuberculosis. Teackle's health had been precarious for some time and he died when Bessie was about five months old. Alice and Bessie moved in with Teackle's mother in Baltimore, [[Maryland]] but the two woman could not agree. Bessie in her autobiography says that it was either that Solomon Warfield, a bachelor uncle, fell in love with Alice, or that Alice's mother-in-law just didn't like Alice dating so soon after Teackle's death. So Alice and Bessie moved again, to a hotel for some months, but then again into the house of her aunt. The biography at Answers.com states: "In the end the two women were supported by Teackle's wealthy brother Solomon Warfield." This however is not exactly true. Women of Alice's time and standing were very restricted in what sort of careers they could pursue. Alice did some small at-home sewing and took a hand at cooking for some of the other tenants where she lived, but the money deposited by Solomon, monthly into her bank account at his bank, is what kept most of the bills paid. |
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| + | As far as her name, "she was christened Bessie but when she grew up, she dropped the Bessie and called herself Wallis" (''The Amiable Baltimorians'') Bessie Wallis was evidently named Bessie for Alice's favorite older sister, and Wallis for her husband's middle name. She states that her name was all run together, her grandmother calling her "Bessiewallis" as if it were one name. | ||
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| − | The picture at left shows Bessie as a young lady. Bessie's family was firmly upper class if perhaps "lower-upper" as they say. In 1908, her mother Alice remarried to John Freeman Rasin, an insurance broker and "son of the Democratic boss of Baltimore", and the family lived in Baltimore, Maryland. More details on the Rasin family can be found in the book [http://books.google.com/books?id=pPZom7xkp3gC&pg=PA764&lpg=PA764&dq=warfield+freeman+rasin&source=web&ots=1LVnI_fJph&sig=l_YblZTwEzmDD4rFnDUQl8J3Q8s#PPA764,M1 ''Baltimore : It's History and It's People'']. (In particular it shows how John Freeman Rasin descends, through the Wingfields, from [[Richard Cecil]] and from [[Edward I, King of England]].)</td></tr></table> | + | The picture at left shows Bessie as a young lady. Bessie's family was firmly upper class if perhaps "lower-upper" as they say. Although the Montague's were a family of some social pretension, they were not wealthy. The Warfields however were. Holding positions and land holdings that were quite handsome for the time. In 1908, her mother Alice remarried to John Freeman Rasin, an insurance broker and "son of the Democratic boss of Baltimore", and the family lived in Baltimore, Maryland. More details on the Rasin family can be found in the book [http://books.google.com/books?id=pPZom7xkp3gC&pg=PA764&lpg=PA764&dq=warfield+freeman+rasin&source=web&ots=1LVnI_fJph&sig=l_YblZTwEzmDD4rFnDUQl8J3Q8s#PPA764,M1 ''Baltimore : It's History and It's People'']. (In particular it shows how John Freeman Rasin descends, through the Wingfields, from [[Richard Cecil]] and from [[Edward I, King of England]].)</td></tr></table> |
Bessie married a U.S. Navy airman named Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. on 8 Nov 1916 at Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore, [[Maryland]]. He however was "...a violent alcoholic", and she left him in 1921, but did not divorce until 10 Dec 1927. Moving to London, she married secondly to banker Ernest Aldrich Simpson on 21 Jul 1928 in Chelsea Registrar's Office, Chelsea, London, England. | Bessie married a U.S. Navy airman named Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. on 8 Nov 1916 at Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore, [[Maryland]]. He however was "...a violent alcoholic", and she left him in 1921, but did not divorce until 10 Dec 1927. Moving to London, she married secondly to banker Ernest Aldrich Simpson on 21 Jul 1928 in Chelsea Registrar's Office, Chelsea, London, England. | ||
