OT: Eleanor Stevens at 102, Wife No. 1 of J. Howard Marshall outlives, outclasses her rival
25th Century Quaker
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/497131p-418904c.html
Maybe if she had stayed off the booze and pills, Anna Nicole Smith
might have lived as long as her sugar daddy's very first wife, who
remains full of vigor and verve at 102.
"She was still dancing up until about two weeks ago when the weather
went bad," a caregiver for Eleanor Stevens reported yesterday. "But I
would guess she is going to go back at it."
This quiet and devout first wife of J. Howard Marshall outlived the
longtime mistress who became the second wife, as well as a subsequent
mistress who died from "complications related to face-lift surgery."
With the deaths of her husband at 90 and now of his third wife, Anna
Nicole Smith, at 39, Stevens is the last one standing, or in her case,
ballroom dancing. You could say that Stevens won, but she is too
cultivated to characterize it that way. She does not seem to make
comments of any kind to the press and was described as "resting" when
a reporter called yesterday.
"A refined, genteel, spiritual and religious woman," court papers note.
She was 26-year-old Eleanor Pierce when she married a Yale-educated
lawyer-turned-oilman named J. Howard Marshall in 1931. They had two
sons. The 30-year marriage ended in divorce in 1961, the settlement
later deemed equitable.
In December 1961, 55-year-old Marshall married Betty Bohannon,
apparently his mistress for nearly three decades. Marshall was minus a
mistress, and he eventually filled that vacancy after visiting what he
termed a "t---- bar" in 1982. There he met Diane (Lady) Walker.
"Lady Walker was one of the strippers who took everything off for J.
Howard in return for his generous dollar bills," court papers note.
"Thus, at the age of 78 he began his pursuit of Lady Walker."
Marshall showered Walker with some $15million in gifts. She took to
sporting solid gold fingernails and so much jewelry that she gave Mr.
T pause when she chanced to encounter him in Las Vegas.
"I take my hat off to you, Lady," the TV star supposedly said. "I've
never seen anybody outdo me."
On July 9, 1991, Walker suffered fatal complications during plastic
surgery. Marshall's second wife died from Alzheimer's disease that
same year, leaving him in despair with a double vacancy.
That October, Marshall's driver took him to a topless bar called
Gigi's in an effort to cheer him up. What court papers describe as a
"period of deep despondency" magically ended when Marshall spied Anna
Nicole Smith.
"While [Smith] danced, J. Howard tried to grab her breast," court
papers would state. "Thus began J. Howard's aggressive pursuit of
[Smith's] affection."
By the end of the week, J. Howard began asking Smith to fill both
vacancies by becoming his wife, as well as his mistress.
"His proposals occurred frequently," court papers report. "He started
buying her rings that increased in size and value."
Perhaps the gift dearest to Smith's heart was the lease to the house
where her idol, Marilyn Monroe, lived and died. Smith and Marshall
were married on June 27, 1994, at the White Dove Wedding Chapel in
Houston.
Marshall attempted to adopt Smith's son from her first marriage, but
the father balked. The couple tried to have children of their own, via
what Smith described in court as "the normal way."
"When that did not work, J. Howard went to a fertility doctor," court
papers report.
The efforts were for naught when Marshall fell ill. He died the
following August at age 90, leaving a legacy of lives that court
papers describe as "intertwined in need, driven by greed and lust."
Among those deposed in the legal battle between Smith and Marshall's
younger son over the estate was the first wife. Eleanor Stevens had
remarried a man of that surname and became a minister. Court papers
report that the then-97-year-old "inquired of counsel how long the
deposition would last, because she did not want to miss her dancing
lessons later that day."
This was not the sort of dancing that brought Lady Walker and Anna
Nicole Smith to J. Marshall's urgent attention. This was ballroom
dancing, as befitted a cultivated minister of late vocation, and
Stevens kept at it until two weeks ago. She is expected to resume when
the weather turns nice, 102 years old and the last one dancing.
Originally published on February 13, 2007
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