Madeleine Astor

[Brian Ahern]

In Judith Geller's "Women and Children First", it is written that only about half of the people invited to an engagement party for Madeleine and Enzo Fiermonte turned up.

Could this be what you are thinking of?

If JJ and Madeleine had a party, it probably would have had to have been overseas. If I'm not mistaken, their wedding was kept low-key and they beat a hasty path to Europe as soon as it had taken place and didn't give anyone a chance to snub them.

 

[kammi jo casci]

yes- thank you brian

 

[Mark Baber]

quote:

they beat a hasty path to Europe as soon as it had taken place

Not really. They were married on 9 September 1911 and didn't leave for Europe until 24 January 1912, more than four months later.​

 

[Brian Ahern]

Time Mag. society pages on Madeleine's later doings and those of her sons:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745689,00.html
Monday, Jun. 12, 1933
Separated. Madeleine Force Astor Dick, widow of John Jacob Astor who was drowned on the Titanic; and William K. Dick, sugar tycoon.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746341,00.html
Monday, Nov. 13, 1933
Ailing Madeleine Force Astor Dick, second wife of the late John Jacob Astor, arrived in Manhattan from Bermuda. She refused to discuss her engagement to Italian Enzo Fiermonte, onetime boxing instructor to her sons, who fortnight ago accused Vincent Astor, Mrs. Dick's stepson and President Roosevelt's good friend, of using "influence" to keep him out of Bermuda and the U. S. Indignant Edith Searle, Mrs. Dick's English secretary, told newshawks: "What a hungry mob of vultures you are! What dirty dogs! What torturers and persecutors!" Still suffering from a broken arm incurred two months ago in Bermuda, Mrs. Dick was carried from the ship on a stretcher, to a hospital in an ambulance.

Monday, Dec. 04, 1933
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746454,00.html
Married. Mrs. Madeline Force Dick, 40, widow of John Jacob Astor, divorced wife of William K. Dick; to Italian Pugilist Enzo Fiermonte, 26, onetime boxing instructor to her sons; in a Manhattan hospital, where she is recuperating from a broken arm.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,746642,00.html
Monday, Dec. 25, 1933
Engaged, John Jacob Astor, 21, great-great-grandson of the first John Jacob Astor, younger son of the fourth John Jacob Astor (Titanic victim) and of Madeleine Talmadge Force Astor Dick Fiermonte; and Eileen S. S. Gillespie. Manhattan debutante. Heir to $3,000,000 last August when he reached his majority, young John Jacob three weeks ago became the stepson of his onetime boxing instructor (TIME, Dec. 4).

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,769947,00.html
Monday, Jul. 09, 1934
Married. John Jacob Astor 3rd, 21, son of Mrs. Enzo Fiermonte; and Ellen Tuck French, 18, daughter of Boston Insurance Agent Francis Ormond French and Mrs. Livingston French of Manhattan: in Newport, R. I. Notably present were Mrs. Fiermonte, Mr. William K. Dick, her second husband. Nazi Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl. Clara Smith, Negro matron of the Newport Casino. Notably absent were Mr. Astor's halfbrother. Vincent Astor; his onetime Fiancee Eileen Gillespie; his stepfather. Prizefighter Fiermonte.
NOTE: Also mentions Prince Oblensky, who was once married to JJ Astor's daughter Muriel:
"Divorced. Edward Francis Willis James, son of the late Mrs. William ("Willy") James, famed Edwardian hostess; from Ottilie E. ("Tilly") Losch James, Viennese dancer; in London. The divorce followed a sensational eight-day trial at the close of which Mrs. James and Prince Serge Obolensky, who was named corespondent, were ordered to pay costs ($50,000)."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882751,00.html
Monday, Jul. 19, 1937
In New York's Rikers Island jail 44-year-old Socialite Mrs. Madeleine Force Astor Dick Fiermonte visited her husband, 30-year-old onetime Pugilist Enzo Fiermonte. Haled into court to answer a three-year-old speeding charge by police who arrested him while he was tinkering his swank racing car at Roosevelt Raceway, he had received a severe judicial reprimand, a sentence of five days which he spent washing windows.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,759737,00.html
Monday, May. 16, 1938
Seeking Divorce. Madeleine Talmadge Force Astor Dick Fiermonte, 45, widow of John Jacob Astor II; from onetime Pugilist Enzo Fiermonte, 31, her third husband ; in West Palm Beach, Fla. Grounds: extreme cruelty.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,788730,00.html
Monday, Jun. 20, 1938
Divorced. Onetime Pugilist Enzo Fiermonte, 30; by Madeline Force Astor Dick Fiermonte, 45; in West Palm Beach, Fla. Grounds: On various occasions he had 1) knocked her down, 2) broken her wrist, 3) hit her with his fist after a dance; been "exceedingly unpleasant.'' Same day, driving an automobile near Auxonne, France, Fiermonte smashed into a tree. Of his three women companions, one. an American girl, Marion Whitworth. was hospitalized.
(NOTE: this article also carries the wedding announcement of Alfred Vanderbilt; son and namesake of the Lusitania victim)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763815,00.html
Monday, Apr. 08, 1940
Died. Madeleine Force Astor Dick Fiermonte, 47; of heart disease; in Palm Beach, Fla. Her first husband, Colonel John Jacob Astor, went down with the Titanic April 15, 1912, while U. S.-bound from their honeymoon; four months later she bore his posthumous son, John Jacob Astor. Her second husband: William Karl Dick, New York socialite (divorced 1933). Her third: Enzo Fiermonte, Italian pugilist (divorced 1938).

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772945,00.html
Monday, Dec. 29, 1941
Married. Virginia Middleton French, sister of Mrs. John Jacob Astor; and William Force Dick, son of the late Madeleine Force Astor Dick; in Manhattan. The bride's father is Francis Ormond French, blue-blood maverick who worked in 1923 as a cab driver, applied for a WPA job in 1938.
(NOTE: this article also carries the obit of Elsie Moore Torlonia; sister-in-law of Titanic's Margaret Graham and great-grandmother of Brooke Shields)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,793275,00.html
Monday, Dec. 09, 1946
Divorced. William Force Dick, 29, half-brother of John Jacob Astor; by Virginia French Dick, 29, sister of the first Mrs. John Jacob Astor; after five years of marriage, no children; in Reno.

 

[tranck]

I was reading where John Jacob's wife Madeline had owned a plantation in Aiken, SC. From what I understand there was a fire. I was wondering if she rebuilt and is her plantation still in existance?

So as a lifelong Titanic fanatic and follower, I saw somewhere a while back that Madeline did have a house in Aiken, SC.
I have a 3 state territory selling medical supplies and don't get to Aiken much but was here today as a matter of fact.

You can believe this or not but, this is the Gospel truth.

I just finished my 2nd call in Aiken and I Googled Madeline Astor's Aiken address - 325 Colleton Ave. So, I figured that if the address was anywhere close to me before I headed back to NC, I'd go check it out.

I pulled off the road - was on York St - put in 325 Colleton Ave on google maps and... to my shock in all of Aiken, SC, it was THE next street - couldn't believe it - could have easily walked to the house.

Turned right on Colleton - saw people walking their dogs - and viola, there it was - like it was meant to be or something.

You could certainly tell that no one has lived in this house for a very long time - walked up the creaking steps and low and behold, a small plaque barely readable saying that the house was some sort of historical site.

This house is old old but you could tell that in its prime - had to be absolutely gorgeous and...it's very big.

I looked in the windows - in one room there were two paintings of young girls - dunno who they were but other than that - nothing much more.

You could tell in its heyday though - it must have been some kind of place.

It was just crazy as a lifelong Titanic fanatic to google the place in all of freaking Aiken SC and I was 1 street away from Colleton Ave - nuts but pretty cool.