Birth Locations – Page 109 – The Exasperated Historian

303) Francesca Hilton

303: Francesca Hilton

Actress and the Only Daughter of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Conrad Hilton

Born: 10 March 1947, New York City, New York, United States of America

Died: 5 January 2015, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Original Name: Constance Francesca Gabor Hilton

Francesca’s life was never easy, despite the overwhelming wealth she grew up surrounded by. Francesca’s mother, Zsa Zsa, claimed she got pregnant after being raped by her husband Conrad. The couple divorced before Francesca was born.

When Francesca’s father died most of his money went to his foundation and she only received $100,000 out of the estimated $200 Million his estate was valued at. She contested the will in court but lost the case. Francesca’s plight is made even more sad when considering her half-brother Barron, who also contested the will, went on to win voting interest and income rights for the Hilton Company, and made himself a billionaire in the process.

Francesca also had strained relations with her mother. After her mother married for the final time, to Prince Frederic von Anhalt in 1986, Francesca would eventually end up in a legal battle with her stepfather, claiming von Anhalt was mismanaging her mother’s medical care and financial assets, as well as refusing to let Francesca visit her mother. The two finally settled out of court, and Francesca was allowed to visit her aging mother. All of this came after von Anhalt had filed a lawsuit against Francesca two years prior, accusing his stepdaughter of fraud and forgery.

For a time, Francesca tried being a stand-up comedian, and part of her act was poking fun at family. She made jokes about her great-grand-niece, the famous Paris Hilton, as well as her mother Zsa Zsa. One of her jokes was, “My mother and I , we’re the best of friends now that we’re the same age.”

By the time of her death, Francesca was completely out of money and alternated between living in her car and a rent by the week apartment when she could afford it. And after she died, her own mother refused to come forward and claim her body. Finally, her stepfather stepped forward, but after allegations were made against him, the Los Angeles County authorities ordered an autopsy be performed and refused von Anhalt permission to take her body. One of her half-brothers stepped in and arranged her funeral.

It has been reported that because of Zsa Zsa’s advanced dementia, she was never made aware of Francesca’s death.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://danielleandandy.com/tragedy-francesca-hilton-daughter-zsa-zsa-gabor/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/zsa-zsa-gabors-troubled-tragic-daughter-francesca-hilton/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140977042/francesca-hilton

302) Julia Child

302: Julia Child

Celebrity Chef

Born: 15 August 1912, Pasadena, California, United States of America

Died: 14 August 2004, Montecito, California, United States of America

Julia is remembered for teaching the American television viewing public all about French cuisine.

She also wrote several cookbooks over the course of her life.

Julia stood at six foot two inches, but her friendly demeanor made her warm and welcoming to all who knew and watched her.

During World War II, she served as a spy in the Office of Strategic Services—the precursor to the CIA, first as a clerk and typist and later as a researcher to develop a shark repellent tool to prevent sharks from accidentally setting off explosives meant for German U-Boats.

Julia was the only woman in her class at Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in 1949 and survived breast cancer when she was fifty-five.

In 1993, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Hall of Fame.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Who Was Julia Child? By Geoff Edgers

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Sources:

https://juliachildfoundation.org/timeline/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9311948/julia-child

301) Florence Foster Jenkins

301: Florence Foster Jenkins

The Not Very Professional Soprano

Born: 19 July 1868, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Died: 26 November 1944, Manhattan, New York, United States of America

Original Name: Nascina Florence Foster

Florence was an American socialite and philanthropist.

She is remembered for her poor singing ability and flamboyant costumes. Florence has actually earned the title of World’s Worst Opera Singer, but the important thing is she kept singing, with a smile, despite everyone telling her she was bad and needed to stop.

In her personal life, Florence was married for a time but left her husband in 1902. She reportedly contracted syphilis from him. Around 1908, Florence hired a new man to be her manager, and he stayed with her as her constant companion for the rest of her life.

Meryl Streep plays her in the 2016 movie based on her life story. You can view the trailer linked in this article.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Florence-Foster-Jenkins

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45274380/florence-jenkins

300) Lucille Ball

300: Lucille Ball

Actress Primarily Known For Her Sitcom I Love Lucy

Born: 6 August 1911, Jamestown, New York, United States of America

Died: 26 April 1989, Beverly Hills, California, United States of America

Lucille had a particularly difficult childhood—her father died when she was three and her stepfather did not like children—she and her brother were separated from one another and their mother and she was sent to live with her step-grandmother who was very stern, leaving Lucille particularly unhappy as a child.

Lucille started out her professional career as a model for clothes and Chesterfield Cigarettes.

She and her first husband Desi Arnaz started Desilu Productions together and after their divorce Lucy bought Desi out—making her the first woman to run a major television production studio.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Hollywood Book of Death by James Robert Parish

Time Magazine's 100 Women of the Year (Lucille appears in the 1951 article, "Lucille Ball")

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Whose Who in American History: Leaders, Visionaries, and Icons who Shaped Our Nation by John M Thompson, William R Gray, and KM Kostyal

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/actor/lucille-ball

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7003071/lucille-ball

299) Anna Nicole Smith

299: Anna Nicole Smith

Model, Actress, and Television Personality

Born: 28 November 1967, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Died: 8 February 2007, Hollywood, Florida, United States of America

Original Name: Vickie Lynn Hogan

In 1993, Anna skyrocketed to fame after being named Playboy’s Playmate of the Year.

Her second marriage was to J. Howard Marshall—a billionaire who held 16% ownership of Koch Industries—and people believed she married him for his money, but she denied it (he was eighty-nine at the time and she was twenty-six).

After his death the fight over his will took her all the way to the Supreme Court (as you can imagine his family didn’t want her having any control over her late husband’s estate). The 2006 settlement decided Anna could collect part of the money from her husband’s estate, however, she had not received anything by the time she died a year later.

Her first child, a son named Daniel, died three days after her daughter Dannielynn was born, from an accidental drug overdose—devastating Anna and possibly becoming a factor in her own death from an accidental drug overdose five months later.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/personality/anna-nicole-smith

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17858972/anna-nicole-smith

298) Stephanie Garman Freed

298: Stephanie Garman Freed

Co-founder and CEO of Rapha International

Birth Date and Location Unknown (Her Actual Birth Day is November 19th according to the Rapha International Twitter Account)

Stephanie is also an advocate for empowering women and girls across the world to know that even though they were trafficked they are still worth everything and can do anything they put their minds to.

Rapha International provides safe houses and educational resources to girls who have been rescued from slavery and sexual exploitation in Cambodia, Haiti, and Thailand. Rapha International also provides Kids Clubs Programs in Cambodia and Thailand to help at risk youth stay off the streets and get a good education.

To learn more about Rapha International (Formerly Rapha House International) and the work they do, I highly recommend watching the empowering documentary Finding Home, the trailer for which I have linked to the left.

So, will you join the fight to end human trafficking?

Sources:

https://raphahouse.org/about/personnel

297) Heather O’Rourke

297: Heather O’Rourke

Child Actress

Born: 27 December 1975, Santee, California, United States of America

Died: 1 February 1988, San Diego, California, United States of America

Heather was most known for her role in the Poltergeist Franchise as innocent little Carol (she beat out Drew Barrymore who was up for the same role).

She had several television roles as well including a recurring one on Happy Days.

In some of her scenes in the third Poltergeist film, Heather is visibly unwell, with her cheeks puffy from the medications she was on, but she never complained to cast members or appeared visibly sick otherwise.

According to the trivia listed for her on her IMDb page, Heather was capable of memorizing sixty pages of script in an hour.

Heather died when she was twelve years old after being misdiagnosed with Crohn’s Disease—she ended up dying from Septic Shock from untreated congenital stenosis of the bowel. For more information on the medical facts surrounding her death, I have linked an article from AP News below that was written just days after her death.

She is buried very close to her Poltergeist co-star (and sister in the film) Dominque Dunne, who was murdered by her crazed ex-boyfriend in 1982.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001576/bio

https://apnews.com/355ac4e0f2b6bd8109f766de6ec0dfb8

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1173/heather-o_rourke

296: Erzsébet Báthory de Ecsed

296: Erzsébet Báthory

Possible Serial Killer

Born: 7 August 1560, Transylvania, Present-day Nyírbátor, Hungary

Died: 21 August 1614, Present-day Čachtice Castle, Hungary (Present-day Čachtice, Slovakia)

Also Known As: Elisabeth Bathory

Correct Hungarian Form: Báthory Erzsébet

Yes, you read that right, she was possibly a serial killer.

Erzsébet was accused of murdering between thirty and six hundred-fifty women—all servant girls.

However, if you look into the research of the story, she was probably completely innocent of the charges and was in actuality an extremely powerful woman who was a threat to a man’s ambitions.

Erzsébet’s family controlled Transylvania, and her uncle was the king of Poland. Her family was extremely powerful in their own right, and her marriage to Count Ferencz Nádasdy linked her to another powerful family.

She would have four children with her husband in ten years.

Erzsébet controlled thousands of servants, vast tracks of land, and a large amount of money, all very unheard of for a woman in her time. Her surviving letters show that she took charge and was a badass take-no-prisoners kind of gal, all of which eventually led to the murder charges.

When her husband died in 1604, rumors began to swirl, and by 1609 were no longer being ignored. The king of Hungary ordered an investigation into the claims that peasant women were disappearing in the area. This investigation reported that Erzsébet had killed six hundred women.

In December of 1609, Erzsébet and her servants were arrested. In 1611, the servants were put on trial and three were executed, however Erzsébet was never tried, but she remained confined to her castle home until her own death in 1614.

So, why do modern scholars discount these claims? Well, for one thing, the king owed large sums of money to Erzsébet at the time, and the debt was simply waved away by her family after the king allowed her family to control her estate. In Layman’s Terms: The king didn’t want to pay, and the family saw an opportunity to take control of her lands and money.

So, the next time you hear someone mention “The Blood Countess” maybe point out that it was more probable that a powerful woman made enemies of the men in her life, rather than did the things that eventually inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. Just a Thought.

Badged Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Rejected Princess

Located In My Personal Library:

One Bloody Thing After Another by Jacob Field

Who Knew? Women in History by Sarah Herman

Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath

Sources:

https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/elisabeth-bathory

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Bathory

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7243101/elizabeth-b_thory

295) Lady Gaga

295: Lady Gaga

Grammy Award Winning Musician and Golden Globe Winning Actress

Born: 28 March 1986, New York City, New York, United States of America

Original Name: Stefani Germanotta

She used to be known for her provocative and slightly-crazed costuming and persona but lately is more known for appearing in American Horror Story and the 2018 remake A Star Is Born co-starring Bradley Cooper.

Netflix also released her documentary entitled Gaga: Five Foot Two, which documents her battle with chronic pain.

In 2019, Lady Gaga announced she was starting her own makeup line, Haus Laboratories.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lady-Gaga

https://www.hauslabs.com/

294) Édith Piaf

294: Édith Piaf

Singer and Actress

Born: 19 December 1915, Paris, France

Died: 10 October 1963, Placassier, France

Original Name: Edith Giovanna Gassion

Edith is one of the most internationally acclaimed French vocalists of all time.

Her home life growing up was different to say the least; after being abandoned by her mother at birth her grandmother raised her in a brothel—she lost her sight for four years as a child and then she joined her father who was a circus acrobat and began to perform there.

Edith had a daughter who died at the age of two from meningitis.

She took on the name Piaf (Sparrow in French) because of her size: around five feet tall and ninety pounds. She started her professional career singing the same music hall songs everyone else sang, but later on sang songs that were written just for her. She was also a theatre actor and mentor to Yves Montand.

She was in multiple serious car accidents towards the end of her life and she ended up dying—purportedly from liver cancer—affected by her alcohol and drug abuse.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Rough Guide to Film Musicals by David Parkinson

Who Knew? Women in History by Sarah Herman

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edith-Piaf

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1334/_dith-giovanna-piaf