Constance Crowninshield Coolidge

Constance was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 4, 1892. She was a daughter of landscape architect, David Hill Coolidge and Harriet Sears ({{nee}} Crowninshield) Coolidge.

She was the granddaughter of Caspar Crowninshield, Commander of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry during the U.S. Civil War, and the niece of the music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and Frank Crowninshield, editor of Vanity Fair. Among her first cousins was Ben Bradlee. She was also a distant relative of former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge.{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-may-02-1973-2282877/|title=Constance C Coolidge Obituary}} Her great-aunt, Fanny Crowninshield, was the wife of John Quincy Adams II, and the mother of George Caspar Adams and Charles Francis Adams III, who were like uncles to her.

Constance was known for her love of anything risky; she was addicted to horse racing, gambling and extramarital affairs. While married to the Count, she became prominent in the arts, as well as one of the most prominent racehorse owners in France.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/04/28/archives/paris-sees-america-of-colonial-days-exhibit-includes-manikins-in.html|title=Paris sees America of Colonial Days Exhibition|website=The New York Times}} With her third husband, she attended the "Concours Hippique", the Paris Horse Show of 1932 and was described as an outstanding figure on the French turf.{{cite news |last1=Birkhead |first1=May |author-link=May Birkhead |date=March 27, 1932 |title=HORSE SHOWS DRAW PARIS SOCIAL WORLD; Aateuil Obstacle Races Attract Many, Although Largest Crowds Wait Until After Easter. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/03/27/archives/horse-shows-draw-paris-social-world-aateuil-obstacle-races-attract.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times}}

Passionate about horse racing, she owned a very large stable of horses and she would go to the racetrack every day. Constance became successful enough to earn herself the nickname "The Lady with the Golden Horse". In 1933, her horse "Yarlas" came in fourth at Auteuil Track.{{cite news |title=MILLIONAIRE WINS CHASE.; Fribourg Entry Takes 500,000 Franc Classic at Auteuil Track. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/06/19/archives/millionaire-wins-chase-fribourg-entry-takes-500000-franc-classic-at.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=June 19, 1933}} In 1934 her horse "Jean-Victor", won the Prix du Président de la République at the Auteuil Hippodrome. Summers were spent at the Hotel Negresco in Nice.

Russell Page and the exiled William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp were among her sexual conquests.

In 1934, she met the writer H. G. Wells, twenty-five years her senior, with whom she conducted a passionate affair in the last decade of his life. By the time she was forty years of age, she was juggling multiple relationships with H.G. Wells, Philippe Barrès, the editor of Paris Match and Paris Soir, and the recently widowed William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp who asked her hand in marriage in 1936.

In 1936 she invited her close friend, Wallis Simpson to Paris, having sympathy of one of her oldest friends during the abdication of Edward VIII. Constance was a guest at Wallis Simpson’s wedding, a private ceremony held a year later, on 3 June 1937 at the Château de Candé.

Constance remained at the center of social events and was friends with Ernest Hemingway and Wallis Simpson.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E511DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT93|title=Chanel's Riviera: Life, Love and the Struggle for Survival on the Côte d'Azur|author=de Courcy, Anne|date=June 13, 2019|publisher=Orion |isbn=9781474608220}} In 1938, her father was terminally ill; she returned to California and was with him at the time of his death.{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special to THE NEW YORK |title=DAVID H. COOLIDGE; Former New York Landscape Architect Dies in California |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/05/04/archives/david-h-coolidge-former-new-york-landscape-architect-dies-in.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=May 4, 1938}} She returned to France spending Christmas in the company of the Windsor's and accompanied them to Monte Carlo.

While in Paris studying languages, eighteen-year-old Constance met fellow Bostonian Ray Atherton who was studying architecture at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. Atherton asked her father for permission to marry, but Coolidge insisted they wait a year. Nevertheless, Atherton persisted and while the Coolidges were touring Germany, he obtained a marriage license and when they returned to Paris, Constance and Ray were married.{{cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-01-1910-2771403/|title=Ray Atherton and Constance Coolidge marry at short notice in Paris|newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 1, 1910}}

The couple resided initially in Chicago, Illinois before moving to London returning a second time in 1917, when her husband entered the U.S. foreign service. During their marriage, she accompanied her husband to China on a diplomatic posting, where she, a determined gambler, behaved wildly enough to earn herself the nickname "The Queen of Peking". Living there during American Prohibition in the early 1920s proved tantalizing for her. Constance wore dresses that were flamboyant and she spared little thought of what others might say about her. She engaged in extramarital liaisons, which placed a great deal of a strain on their marriage.{{Cite book|title=Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RpVaAAAAMAAJ|author=Geoffrey Wolff|year=2003|isbn=1-59017-066-0|publisher=New York Review of Books}}{{rp|214}} Among her affairs were those with British diplomat Eric Brenan and American expat, Felix Doubleday, the adoptive son of publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m5wmDwAAQBAJ&q=coolidge+atherton+married+diplomat&pg=PT114|title=Wallis in Love: The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy|author=Andrew Morton|date=February 13, 2018|publisher=Grand Central |isbn=9781455566969}}{{cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/dlc_armstrong_ver02/data/sn83045462/00280657372/1923090701/0689.pdf|title=Constance Atherton's lover Felix Doubleday in 1923}} Love letters from both Brenan and Doubleday have been preserved at the Massachusetts Historical Society. It was also during this time that she became friends with Wallis Simpson and Katherine and Herman Rogers. She had multiple admirers and received regular relationship advice from her relative and financial guardian, Charles Francis Adams III, written on his "Secretary of the US Navy" stationery.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bx7CDwAAQBAJ&q=constance+coolidge+felix&pg=PT324|title=Shadow Lovers UK Edition: The last affairs of H.G. Wells|author=Andrea Lynn|date=December 6, 2019|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781000311341}}

When Atherton was recalled to the State Department, she remained in China on the plea that her horses needed attention.{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=GETS DIVORCE IN PARIS.; Former Constance Coolidge Obtains Decree Against Count de Jumhilac. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/05/16/archives/gets-divorce-in-paris-former-constance-coolidge-obtains-decree.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=May 16, 1929}} Later, Atherton was assigned to head up the U.S. Embassy in Athens and Constance moved to Paris. In Paris, she became intimately involved for a time with fellow Boston Brahmin, hedonistic poet and publisher Harry Crosby, whose wife Caresse Crosby was the first recipient of a patent for the modern bra.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/5549090/The-Crosbys-literatures-most-scandalous-couple.html|title=The Crosby's: Literatures most scandalous couple}}{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/6076|title=Constance with friends – Description Handwritten on verso, "L to R., C.C.C. Lawrence Vail, Kay Boyle, Harry crossed out Hart, Caresse, Le Moulin on the Sun Tower 1928". Note: "Le Moulin du Soleil" was the home of Caresse and Harry Crosby in Ermenonville, France – 1928}} In 1924, Constance obtained a divorce, reportedly in China, from Atherton who later married Maude Hunnewell, with whom he had two children before his death in 1960.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=RAY ATHERTON, 76, DIPLOMAT, IS DEAD; First U.S. Envoy to Canada! Had Served in London---Associate of Cordell Hull |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/03/17/archives/myathertoifi-dfflomatisdead-first-us-envoy-to-canada-had-served-in.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=March 17, 1960}}

Following her divorce from Atherton, she became engaged to the former polo player, Antoine Clément Marie Pierre Chapelle de Jumilhac, also known as Count Pierre de Jumilhac, a member of one of the oldest noble families of Brittany.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qP_03FnTXXMC&q=constance+atherton+count+paros&pg=PA253|title=New York Times reports on the engagement between Constance Atherton and former polo player Count Pierre Jumilhac in 1924|year=1924}}{{cite news |title=COUNT TO MARRY DIVORCEE.; Mrs. Constance Atherton to Become Bride of Pierre Jumilhae. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/09/21/archives/count-to-marry-divorcee-mrs-constance-atherton-to-become-bride-of.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=September 21, 1924}} They married on October 11, 1924, and she became Comtesse de Jumilhac.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/09/21/archives/count-to-marry-divorcee-mrs-constance-atherton-to-become-bride-of.html|title=New York Times reports on Count to marry divorcee Mrs Constance Atherton|website=The New York Times}} The marriage to the Count did not last,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/01/11/archives/would-divorce-jumilhac-former-constance-coolidge-starts-suit.html|title=Former Constance Coolidge Starts Suit Against Count in Paris|website=The New York Times}} and they divorced in Paris in May 1929.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/05/16/archives/gets-divorce-in-paris-former-constance-coolidge-obtains-decree.html|title=Constance Coolidge Obtains Decree Against Count de Jumhilac, May 16|year=1929|website=The New York Times}} D. H. Lawrence, the English writer, wrote to Harry Crosby and mentioned Constance:{{cite web|url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6ms4j7m|title=Crosby, Harry, (1898-1929)}}{{blockquote|Good that Constance – la Comtesse – has her divorce – but tell her to spend a year in contemplation before she starts marrying again. Marriage is a treacherous stimulant.}}

Constance remarried twelve months later and Count de Jumilhac died two years later on October 18, 1932, following a long illness.{{cite news |title=COUNT P. DE JUMILHAC.; Former Husband of Miss Constance Coolidge of Boston. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/10/19/archives/count-p-de-jumilhac-former-husband-of-miss-constance-coolidge-of.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=October 19, 1932}}

After her second divorce, Constance visited her parents who had relocated to Santa Barbara. Shortly after, she met Eliot Rogers and their marriage was announced by The New York Times on February 26, 1930, with the headline "Countess Wed on Coast".{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=COUNTESS WED ON COAST.; Constance de Jumilhac and Eliot Rogers Marry. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/02/26/archives/countess-wed-on-coast-constance-de-jumilhac-and-eliot-rogers-marry.html |access-date=July 15, 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=February 26, 1930}} Eliot was the brother of author Cameron Rogers and a nephew of Chicago banker Charles Fernald and Reginald Fernald, the owner of the Santa Barbara Morning Press. She returned to France with Eliot, however, by November 1933, the papers referred to Constance by her maiden name, since her marriage to newspaper owner Eliot had ended in divorce.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/11/05/archives/many-americans-see-the-prix-du-conseil-joseph-e-wideners-magnus.html|title=Many Americans see the Prix du Conseil|website=The New York Times}}

In 1940 she married André William Magnus, a public relations manager in the French Film Industry and spent most of the rest of her life in Paris.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43E7AAAAMAAJ&q=andre+magnus+marries+constance|title=The International Nomads|author=Rasponi, Lanfranco|year=1966|page=243}}{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=O2d4vWKRoLIC&q=Andr%C3%A9+Magnus+married+coolidge%2F&pg=PA314|title=Behind Closed Doors|author=Hugo Vickers|year=2011|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781409036920|page=314}}

Constance died at the American Hospital in Paris on April 30, 1973, and her husband, André scattered her ashes in a vault situated on the top of a hill in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bx7CDwAAQBAJ&q=constance+coolidge+felix&pg=PT324|title=Shadow Lovers UK Edition: The last affairs of H.G. Wells|author=Andrea Lynn – includes extensive research on "CCC" – Constance C. Coolidge|date=December 6, 2019|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781000311341}} Although she was a distant relative of Calvin Coolidge, a range of U.S. regional newspapers from Alabama to Meriden, Connecticut published her obituary erroneously describing her as one of his daughters.

The Southern Illinois University, Carbondale holds a series of photographs of her life as part of the Caresse Crosby Collection.{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/4842/rec/5|title=Constance with Irish author James Joyce and his wife at Lake of Constance in 1932}}{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/4843/rec/6|title=Constance with Irish author James Joyce and his family at Lake of Constance in 1932}}{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/7461/rec/4|title=Constance and Caresse Crosby in Ischia, Italy in 1933}}{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/7464/rec/3|title=Constance Magnus in Antibes, France 1950}}{{cite web|url=http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sic_scrcgen/id/7463/rec/2|title=Constance in Arosa, Switzerland 1962}}

{{Crowninshield-bradlee family tree}}

{{Reflist}}

• The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, Volume VII, November 1928 – February 1930, ed. Keith Sagar and James T. Boulton, Cambridge University Press, 1993, page 48. {{ISBN|0-521-00699-6}}.
• W.H. Downes, John S. Sargent, his life and work, London, 1926, page 291, as 'Mrs Ray Atherton'.
• D. McKibbin, Sargent's Boston, with an Essay and a Biographical Summary; plus a complete Check List of Sargent's portraits, Boston, 1956, page 82, as 'Mrs Ray Atherton'.

• [https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_FR990003?destination=edan-search/catalog_of_america%3Fpage%3D34%26edan_q%3D%252A%253A%252A%26edan_local%3D1%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Ddate%253A%25221910s%2522 Mrs. Ray Atherton (Constance Coolidge)]

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Category:1892 births

Category:1973 deaths

Constance

Category:Crowninshield family

Category:French countesses

Category:People from Boston

Category:American expatriates in France