Althea Flynt
{{Short description|American model, publisher and wife of Larry Flynt (1953–1987)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Althea Flynt
| honorific_suffix =
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| image = Althea_Flynt_in_1979.jpg
| alt = Althea Flynt
| caption = Flynt in 1979
| birth_name = Althea Leasure
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1953|11|6}}
| birth_place = Marietta, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|6|27|1953|11|6}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Fernwood Cemetery
Lockbourne, Franklin County, Ohio
| occupation = Magazine publisher
| spouse = {{marriage|Larry Flynt|1976}}
}}
Althea Flynt (née Leasure; November 6, 1953 – June 27, 1987) was an American co-publisher of pornographic magazine Hustler, and the fourth wife of Larry Flynt.
Early life
Althea Leasure was born November 6, 1953, in Marietta, Ohio. Althea and her four siblings came from an abusive home. When Althea was eight, her father Richard shot and killed her mother, June, her grandfather, and June's best friend and neighbor,{{cite news |title=Four Killed In Aftermath Of Squabble |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70402661/four-killed-in-aftermath-of-squabble/ |work=Dayton Daily News |date=27 February 1962|via=newspapers.com |page=8}} before fatally shooting himself.{{Sfn|Flynt|2008|p=108}} Althea's grandmother was present during the incident, but survived by hiding in the nearby creek.
Althea and three of her siblings were later put into the OSSO Home (Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphanage) in Xenia, Ohio, which she ran away from multiple times after being sexually molested when sent to possible adopters' homes.
Career
She met Larry Flynt at age 17 in 1971, when she applied for a job as a go-go dancer at his Hustler club in Columbus, Ohio. They were married on August 21, 1976. She was Hustler's first life-size centerfold, and as Publisher/Editor was involved with the development, management and publication of the magazine until her death; she ran the magazine and kept it afloat during Larry's "born again" experience brought on by a psychotic bipolar manic episode in 1977, his subsequent near-fatal crippling shooting in Georgia in 1978 and multiple bouts with bipolar disorder which also led to his campaign for President of the United States in 1984.{{cite news |last=Gorney |first=Cynthia |title=The Brief, Hot Flame of Althea Flynt; The Hustler Publisher's Wife, Her Turbulent Life and Mysterious Death |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 6, 1987 |page=Style D1 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1331396.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415115106/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1331396.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 15, 2016 |accessdate=November 22, 2013}}
In the mid-1980s, Althea planned a new non-pornographic magazine called The Rage, to focus on the punk subculture. The Rage was ultimately abandoned due to the expense of Flynt's 1984 presidential run.
In 1982 Althea began using the drugs that Larry was prescribed for pain after he was shot in 1978, and developed an addiction. She was diagnosed with AIDS in 1983; Flynt stated that she contracted the disease from an untested blood transfusion during a hysterectomy, and that she always used clean needles when using drugs.{{cite book |last=Edison |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Edison |date=November 2011 |title=Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! Of Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers An American Tale of Sex and Wonder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9wREAAAQBAJ&dq=althea+flynt+claims+she+got+aids+from+blood+transfusion&pg=PT217 |location=New York |publisher=Soft Skull Press |isbn=9781593764678}}
Death
Althea died at age 33 when she drowned in the bathtub at the couple's Bel-Air mansion in Los Angeles on June 27, 1987. According to reports, she passed out from a prescription drug overdose and drowned.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/larry-flynt-the-trouble-with-larry-570430.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125093758/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/larry-flynt-the-trouble-with-larry-570430.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 25, 2009 |title=Larry Flynt: The trouble with Larry |author=Chalmers, Robert |date=February 22, 2004 |work=The Independent |accessdate=June 22, 2010}} Her husband, however, states that at the time she was in the advanced stages of AIDS and would have died within that year, regardless. At that point he was taking care of her and claims that she was practically bedridden.{{cite news|last=Abdulali |first=Sohaila |title=The Life & Death of Althea Flynt The Porn King's Wife Stick By Him to the End |url=http://articles.philly.com/1987-07-15/entertainment/26198388_1_hustler-magazine-publisher-larry-flynt-public-eye |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120708172014/http://articles.philly.com/1987-07-15/entertainment/26198388_1_hustler-magazine-publisher-larry-flynt-public-eye |archivedate=July 8, 2012 |url-status=dead |accessdate=June 5, 2011 |newspaper=Philadelphia Daily News |date=July 15, 1987 }}
Althea Flynt was originally buried in the Flynt family cemetery plot, located on Lakeville in Salyersville, Kentucky. Her remains were disinterred in 2021 and moved to Ohio.
In popular culture
Courtney Love portrayed Althea in the 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,288241,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118015605/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,288241,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 18, 2007 |title=The People vs. Larry Flynt |last=Robbins |first=Ira |date=June 6, 1997 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly|accessdate=November 22, 2013}}
References
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;Citations
- {{cite book| last=Flynt|first=Larry|author-link=Larry Flynt|title=An Unseemly Man: My Life as Pornographer, Pundit, and Social Outcast|year=2008|publisher=Phoenix Books|isbn=978-1-597-77576-2}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|9575}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flynt, Althea}}
Category:Accidental deaths in California
Category:American magazine publishers (people)
Category:Deaths by drowning in California
Category:Drug-related deaths in California
Category:People from Marietta, Ohio
Category:20th-century American businesspeople