Frances Scott Fitzgerald
| Frances Scott Fitzgerald | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Frances Scott Fitzgerald October 26, 1921 Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died |
June 18, 1986 (aged 64) Montgomery, Alabama |
| Resting place |
St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Rockville, Maryland |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Nationality | American |
Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald (October 26, 1921 – June 18, 1986) was the only child of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. She was a writer, a journalist (for The Washington Post and The New Yorker among others), and a prominent member of the Democratic Party. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1992.[1]
Early life
Fitzgerald was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Upon her birth, her mother supposedly remarked that she hoped Scottie would be a "beautiful little fool."[2] (In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan says the same thing about her daughter.)[2] Scottie Fitzgerald spent her childhood moving around from place to place with her world-traveler parents[3] – including, among others, time spent living in Paris and Antibes in France,[3] and for five years in a beach house her father rented on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay near Towson, a suburb of Baltimore in Maryland.[4][5][2][3][6]
In 1936, Fitzgerald began attending the Ethel Walker School,[7] a boarding school in Connecticut, but was expelled for sneaking away from campus to hitchhike to Yale.[8] She attended Vassar and graduated in 1942.[9] Hoping that she would not repeat his academic failures, her father wrote letters to her urging her to take rigorous classes and work hard.[7]
Personal life and career
Scottie Fitzgerald and her first husband, Samuel Jackson "Jack" Lanahan, a prominent Washington lawyer, were popular hosts in Washington in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, she wrote musical comedies about the Washington social scene that were performed annually to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Washington. Her show Onward and Upward with the Arts was considered for a Broadway run by director David Merrick.
Fitzgerald had four children with her first husband: Thomas Addison Lanahan; Eleanor Ann Lanahan; Samuel Jackson Lanahan, Jr.; and Cecilia Scott Lanahan. The eldest child, Thomas, known as "Tim", committed suicide at age 27. Eleanor "Bobbie" Lanahan, an artist and writer, wrote a biography of her mother, Scottie, The Daughter of ... The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith (1995). Fitzgerald's second marriage, to Grove Smith, ended in divorce in 1979.[10]
Later life and death
Scottie Fitzgerald lived the last years of her life in her mother Zelda's hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, and died there at age 64 in 1986.[10] She is interred near her parents in Rockville, Maryland.[11]
References
- ↑ "Inductees". Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. State of Alabama. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
- 1 2 3 Milford, Nancy (1970), Zelda: A Biography, New York: Harper & Row
- 1 2 3 Mizener, Arthur (1951), The Far Side of Paradise: A Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ↑ Rudacille, Deborah (December 2009). "F. Scott Fitzgerald in Baltimore". Baltimore Style. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
- ↑ Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph (2002), Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (2nd rev. ed.), Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 1-57003-455-9
- ↑ Turnbull, Andrew (1962), Scott Fitzgerald, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
- 1 2 Tate, Mary Jo. Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Literary Reference to His Life.
- ↑ Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children.
- ↑ Kretzmer, Sybil Sever (1995-09-24). "Fitzgerald Through Other Eyes : Fitzgerald's daughter and lover: Two tales of tragedy and triumph : SCOTTIE: THE DAUGHTER OF . . . The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith, By Eleanor Lanahan (HarperCollins: $30; 624 pp.) : INTIMATE LIES: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham Her Son's Story, By Robert Westbrook (HarperCollins: $30; 501 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-04-25.
- 1 2 Orlando Sentinel obituary. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- ↑ Frances Fitzgerald Gravestone in Rockville, Montgomery, Maryland. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
External links
- The Scottie Fitzgerald Smith Papers, Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library
- Frances Scott Fitzgerald at the Internet Movie Database
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|