Hemingway's son Gregory/Gloria, cross-dresser
LandonEx
-- Police say cause was heart disease --
By Elaine De Valle / Miami Herald
Gregory Hemingway, 69, who often dressed as a woman and went by the name of
Gloria, was found dead in a private cell at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention
Center at 5:45 a.m. Monday, said Janelle Hall, a spokeswoman for the county's
corrections department.
"He was discovered by an officer. He was getting ready to go to court that
morning, and when the officer summoned him to go to court, he was lying
there,'' Hall said.
Miami-Dade police said family members confirmed the deceased was the son of the
famous author.
Police had arrested Hemingway on Key Biscayne five days before on a charge of
indecent exposure and resisting arrest without violence.
Key Biscayne police officer Nelia Real made the arrest after a park ranger at
Bill Baggs State Park reported a naked pedestrian heading north on Crandon
Boulevard.
IN ROAD'S MEDIAN
"He was walking naked,'' Real said Wednesday. "When I got there, he was
sitting on the curb in the median naked, and he was trying to put his underwear
on."
This occurred at about noon some 50 yards out of the state park and in the
populated part of the village.
"He had no shoes, and he had a dress and high heels in his hands,'' Real said.
Hemingway appeared to be drunk or impaired during the arrest, Real said.
"I feel really bad that that happened,'' she said. "He was a very nice guy.
He wasn't nasty. He appeared to be very, very nice. I felt really bad. I felt
like maybe there was something wrong with him mentally."
Miami-Dade police spokesman Juan DelCastillo said homicide detectives had ruled
the death a natural one after receiving an autopsy report. Cause: hypertension
and cardiovascular disease, he said.
Gregory Hemingway, youngest of the author's three sons, was born in Kansas
City, Missouri, on November 12, 1931. He was once a physician. His license
was issued in 1973 and later voided.
Public records show he was married four times. One marriage was to Valerie
Danby-Smith, his father's secretary during the last years of his life. Ernest
Hemingway killed himself in 1961.
Gregory's last marriage was to Ida Mae Galliher in Key West on Nov. 21, 1992.
IN HOUSE'S GARDEN
The wedding was in the garden of Hemingway House in front of 50 guests,
including his nanny, according to a friend of the bride.
The couple divorced in 1995.
That same year, Gregory -- who wrote a book, "Papa: A Personal Memoir," in 1976
-- traveled to Cuba to attend a conference of Hemingway scholars. He went to
Finca Vigía, the white one-story house where his father lived for 20 years,
from 1939 to 1959.
In 1951, after Hemingway's mother, Pauline, died from an adrenal gland tumor,
Ernest Hemingway accused Gregory of contributing to Pauline's death by leaving
for California. The accusation cut deep, and Gregory reportedly never
recovered.
According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers in "Hemingway: A Biography," Gregory
drank heavily, could not hold a job and had a troubled childhood. In 1941,
Ernest Hemingway told Pauline that Gregory had "the biggest dark side in the
family except me."
WROTE ANGRY LETTERS
The younger Hemingway wrote angry letters to Ernest Hemingway, calling him "an
ailing alcoholic" and deriding "The Old Man and the Sea" as "a sickly bucket of
sentimental slop."
Later, Gregory began memoirs with "I never got over a sense of responsibility
for my father's death."
Gregory's memoirs recalled "wonderful war games with Papa" on the lawn of the
Key West house after his father came back from Spain in May 1937. The "old
man" brought firecrackers, "so we had imaginary armies moving into battle
against each other, complete with cannon fire and puffs of smoke."
Gregory Hemingway attended the University of Miami's Medical School, but
records were not available late Wednesday. Hemingway's last known local
address was 3558 Royal Palm Ave., Coconut Grove.
"He was a very knowledgeable, bright man. He was just a very pleasant, offbeat
guy,'' said Sterling "Butch" Warren, a bartender who knew him for about 15
years -- mostly from visits to the old Taurus Steak House and more recently to
the Tuscany Trattoria.
TENDED DYING MAN
Warren said Hemingway was a doctor who hadn't practiced in years. One of his
lasting memories was giving advice to a friend on the steps of the Taurus who
was dealing with his last days as a cancer victim.
"Very soft-spoken. He was a great listener who would take it in and be
thoughtful of people,'' he said.
Warren said that once in a while, Hemingway would discuss some of his father's
work.
He recalls seeing Hemingway about five years ago after a one-man show on Ernest
Hemingway's life at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. It brought back painful
memories.
"He was saddened by reliving that,'' Warren said. "He was very distraught by
it.''
Cigar Aficionado reported on Hemingway's sons John, Patrick and Gregory's
forming Hemingway Ltd. in 1992 to license the use of their father's name, image
and signature.
"Each son has long earned up to $100,000 a year in Hemingway-related
royalties," it said.
Miami Herald staff writers Elisabeth Donovan, Renato Pérez and Charles Rabin
contributed to this report.
October 4, 2001
=L=
MadCow57
Gloria, was found dead in a private cell at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention
park ranger at
Bill Baggs State Park reported a naked pedestrian heading north on Crandon
there, he was
sitting on the curb in the median naked, and he was trying to put his underwear
So, a man picked up for walking around naked was held in the Women's Detention
Center?
RChamp7927
The Hemingway family seems to be so filled with gifted people and yet filled
with so much mental anguish and illness. The poet Dryden, I believe, once said
that "great wits and madness" are closely allied ("wits" here meaning people of
intelligence). The Hemingways provide at least anecdotal evidence of the
claim.
Bob Champ
T.E. Goodell
It's my understanding that Hemingway had had sexual reassignment surgery in the
mid-seventies, and had lived as a woman since then. Consequently, describing
him/her as a "cross-dresser" isn't precisely accurate.
T.E.
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We all shine on
like the moon, and the stars, and the sun
--John Lennon