Katharine Mortimer

Katharine Mortimer Blaine
Born 1923
Died April 14, 2003(2003-04-14) (aged 79–80)
Education Chapin School
Spouse(s)
Oliver Cadwell Biddle
(m. 1945; div. 1947)

Francis Xavier Shields
(m. 1949–div. )
Richard Gillespie Blaine
(m. 1962; d. 1972)
Children 5

Katharine Mortimer (1923 – April 14, 2003) was an American socialite, a descendant of John Jay and Robert Livingston, a member of the prominent Mortimer family of New York, and the one-time wife of tennis star Francis Xavier Shields.[1]

Biography

Mortimer was the youngest of six children born to the stockbroker and U.S. amateur court tennis champion Stanley Grafton Mortimer (1890–1947)[2] and Kathleen Hunt Tilford (1890–1970).[1] [3] The other children were Stanley Grafton Mortimer Jr. (1913–1999), who first married socialite Babe Paley (1915–1978)[4] and then Kathleen H. Harriman (1917–2011), the daughter of W. Averell Harriman,[5] Henry Tilford Mortimer (1916–1993),[2][6] Richard Mortimer,[2] John Jay Mortimer (d. 2013),[2][7] who married Senga; Eve Mortimer (1918–2007),[2] who married Clarence Pell, Jr.[3] and later Lewis Cass Ledyard III (1911–1990).[8]

Her maternal grandfather was Henry Morgan Tilford, former president of Standard Oil Company.[9] Through her father, she was a descendant of the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay as well as the first colonial Governor of New York, Robert Livingston.[1]

Mortimer attended the all-girls Chapin School in Manhattan.[1] She was introduced to society in 1940 at her parents country home, Keewaydin, in Tuxedo Park.[10]

Personal life

In her youth she was romantically linked to Joseph Kennedy Jr. (1915-1944) (the eldest brother of John F. Kennedy) but she declined to become more seriously involved with Joe Jr. because, she claimed, his family was too loud.[11]

In 1945, she married her first husband, Oliver Cadwell Biddle,[1] the son of Dr. and Mrs. Sydney Geoffrey Biddle of Biddle family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[10][12] He had attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1942 and served in the Pacific as a lieutenant in the navy during World War II.[10] Before their divorce in 1947, they had one daughter:[13]

  • Christine Mortimer Biddle,[1][3] who married Thomas George Reeves, the son of Louis Milford Reeves, in 1972.[14][15]

In 1949, after her divorce from Biddle, she married the tennis star and socialite Francis Xavier Shields (1909-1975).[1][3] Shields was previously married to Rebecca Tenney (1910–2005) from 1932 until their divorce in 1940,[16] and later to Princess Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi (1916-1960),[17] the daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th prince of Civitella-Cesi and the American heiress Mary Elsie Moore. Shields had two children with Marina, Francis Alexander Shields (1941-2003) (the father of actress Brooke Shields) and Marina Shields (born 1943).[18] With Shields she had:

  • Alston Shields
  • William Xavier Orin Hunt Shields (1949-2016)[19]
  • Katharine Shields

In 1962, after her divorce from Shields, Mortimer married her third husband,[3] Richard Gillespie Blaine (d. 1972),[1] with whom she had:

  • Walker Blaine

Mortimer died of cancer on April 14, 2003.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Deaths BLAINE, KATHARINE MORTIMER". The New York Times. April 17, 2003. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Staff (April 6, 1947). "S.G. MORTIMER DIES". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Morgan, Spencer (December 18, 2006). "The Mortimer Family". New York Observer. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Nemy, Enid (July 7, 1978). "Barbara Cushing Paley Dies at 63; Style Pace-Setter in Three Decades; Symbol of Taste". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-21. Barbara Cushing Paley, the wife of William S. Paley, the chairman of the board of the Columbia Broadcasting System, died of cancer at their apartment in New York City yesterday after a long illness. She was 63 years old.
  5. ↑ Fox, Margalit (February 19, 2011). "Kathleen Mortimer, Rich and Adventurous, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Staff (September 8, 1993). "Henry T. Mortimer; Stockbroker, 77". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Theodoracopulos, Taki (November 9, 2013). "RIP John Jay, my brave friend who refused to take part in vulture capitalism". The Spectator. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Wallace, Andrew (December 5, 1990). "Lewis C. Ledyard 3d, A Lawyer Who Turned To Art, Horse Breeding". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Staff (October 15, 1935). "Son to Mrs. S.G. Mortimer". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 Staff (July 14, 1945). "MISS K. MORTIMER WED TO O.C. BIDDLE". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  11. ↑ DeSocio, Richard James (2017). Clash of Dynasties: Why Gov. Nelson Rockefeller Killed Jfk, Rfk, and Ordered the Watergate Break-In to End the Presidential Hopes of Ted Kennedy. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781524692483. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  12. ↑ "TROTH ANNOUNCED OF MISS MORTIMER; Tuxedo Park Girl Will Become the Bride of Lieut. Oliver Cadwell Biddle of Navy". The New York Times. 10 November 1944. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  13. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (29 June 1947). "Divorces Oliver C. Biddle". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  14. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (25 June 1972). "Miss Biddle Betrothed To Thomas G. Reeves". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  15. ↑ Times, Special To The New York (13 August 1972). "Christine Biddle Is Wed To Thomas G. Reeves". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  16. ↑ [ Displaying Abstract ] (March 2, 2011). "Frank Shields Is Divorced". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  17. ↑ Staff (September 16, 1960). "PRINCESS DIES IN CRASH". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  18. ↑ "Frank X. Shields Is Dead at 66", The New York Times, 20 August 1975
  19. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths SHIELDS, WILLIAM X." The New York Times. 10 January 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
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