Her name is Madeliene
She's John Jacob Astor's second wife
She's only 19 years old
and now she's married to a prominent man
worth over 150 million and 29 years her senior.
They've only been married 7 months, she's already 7 months pregnant
and the scandal was such they ran away to Europe to avoid the publicity.
Avoid the publicity!
--Alice Beane, Titanic
Colonel John Jacob Astor (1864-1912)
John Jacob Astor IV, son of William Astor and great-grandson of fur trader John Jacob Astor, was born July 13, 1864 in Rhinebeck, New York. Astor attended St. Paul's School, Concord, and then he later went to Harvard. He traveled abroad from 1888-1891. He then came back to the United States to manage the family fortune. He had homes at both 840 Fifth Ave., New York City and in Rhinebeck, New York.
May 1, 1891, Astor married Ava, the daughter of Edward Shippen Willing of Philadelphia. They had a son and a daughter.
Astor was the author of a semi-scientific novel, A JOURNEY TO OTHER WORLDS, written in 1894. Some of Astor's other accomplishments were developing a bicycle brake in 1898, helping develop the turbine engine, and inventing a pneumatic road-improver. In 1897, he built the Astoria Hotel, New York, which adjoined the Waldorf Hotel, built by his cousin William Waldorf Astor. The complex then became known as the Waldorf Asotria. Astor's real-estate interest included the hotels, The Hotel St. Regis and the Knickerbocker.
Astor became Colonel-staff to General Levi P. Morton. In 1898 he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the US volunteers.
In 1909, Astor divorced his wife Ava, and two years later remarried. His new bride, Madeleine Force, was only 18 years old, a year younger than his son. There was much controversy over the marriage. The newly married couple decided to travel to Egypt and Paris, hoping the scandal caused by their marriage would die down while they were gone. In the spring of 1912, after discovering that Madeleine was pregnant, the Astors decided to return home to America. That is when they boarded the Titanic as First Class Passengers.
They boarded at Cherbourg. With the couple was Astor's manservant Mr. Victor Robbins, Mrs. Astor's maid Miss Rosalie Bidois, and the Astors' pet Airedale Kitty.
After the Titanic hit the iceberg and the other first class passengers started towards the lifeboats, the Astors sat on the mechanical horses in the gymnasium. Astor felt safer on the Titanic itself than in any of the lifeboats. The Astors did sit in the gymnasium with their lifebelts on though. Col. Astor had found another lifebelt and cut it open with a penknife to show Madeleine what it was made of.
Astor changed his mind about the lifeboats at 1:45am, when he helped his wife climb through the windows of the enclosed promenade into lifeboat #4. Astor asked if he can join his wife in the lifeboat because of her condition, and Second Officer Charles Lightoller told him that no men would be allowed onto a lifeboat until all of the women have been loaded. Astor asked which number lifeboat his wife was on and stood back. After the lifeboat was lowered, Astor stood alone.
Astor did not survive the sinking of the Titanic. His body, which was badly crushed, was recovered on Monday, April 22nd by the cable ship McKay-Bennett. Astor was wearing a blue serge suit. He was identified by the letters J.J.A. that were on the collar of the brown flannel shirt that he wore.
Madeliene Astor
Excerpts from Madeliene's obit in The Palm Beach Times, undated:
"Mrs. Madeline Force Astor Dick Fiermonte, 47, died at 7:30 o'clock last night at Casa Invierno on Jungle Road, which she had leased for the season, following several months of ill health. Death was attributed to coronary occlusion, a heart ailment. Since her divorce here in 1938 from Enzo Fiermonte, Italian boxer, she had been known as Mrs. Dick.
In spite of her comparative youth, Mrs. Dick had had a most colorful and full life, ranging from her rescue from the liner Titanic as a girl bride, when her husband perished, to her marriage with Fiermonte, 14 years her junior.
She was born Madeline Talmadge Force, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Force, in 1893 in Brooklyn. Her first marriage, when she was 18, violated the terms of Col. John Jacob Astor's divorce from Mrs. Ava Willing Astor, which forbade his remarriage. After a year's tour on his steam yacht, the couple was returning from Europe aboard the Titanic, when it went down after striking an iceberg April 14, 1912. Col. Astor placed his young wife, soon to become a mother, in a lifeboat from which she was subsequently rescued by the liner Carpathia. On August 14, 1912, John Jacob Astor, the sixth of the name, was born. By he terms of her husband's will, she received the income of a trust fund of $5,000,000 as long as she remained a widow, in the event of her re-marriage, it was stipulated the fund would go to William Vincent Astor. The will also provided a $3,000,000 trust fund for any child that might survive him.
On June 22, 1916, she became the bride of William K. Dick, wealthy banker, at Bar Harbor, Maine, and they had two sons, William, Jr., and John Henry. After a Reno divorce in June 1933 from Dick, she traveled abroad and met Fiermonte. They were married in November, 1933, in a New York hospital, where she was a patient. Their marriage ended in divorce here in June 1938, when Fiermonte was in Europe. She was reported to have settled $17,000 on him.
Mrs. Dick had spent comparatively little time in Palm Beach in late years, but arrived in early January this year. Her eldest son, John Jacob Astor, took a house nearby, Casa Alexando, leased from the Paulding Fosdicks. On their return, he and his wife and small son, William, moved to Whitehall for a short time, leaving there Monday of this week. When her children were small she spent her winters in Palm Beach, taking an active part in social life, from which she dropped out considerably after her marriage to Fiermonte. En route to Palm Beach she stopped at her plantation at Aiken, which suffered a disastrous fire."
Fates in the musical: Astor dies, Madeleine lives.
Madeleine Astor's Lifebelt |
Biography by: Crazed Godless Savage
Current Astor: Randy Clements |