Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, Daughter Of Broadway Impresario, 91
DGH
Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, 91; daughter of Broadway impresario
From a Times Staff Writer
Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the daughter of legendary Broadway
impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, died of congestive heart failure April 11
[2008] at her home in Los Angeles [California]. She was 91.
Stephenson was born October 23, 1916, in New York City [New York],
where her father was famous for mounting the musical stage
spectaculars known as the Ziegfeld Follies. Her mother was actress
Billie Burke, who would be most remembered for her portrayal of Glinda
the Good Witch of the North in the 1939 movie classic "The Wizard of
Oz."
She was their only child and grew up on an estate in Hastings-on-
Hudson, north of New York City, and in Palm Beach, Fla., with a
menagerie that included an elephant named Ziggy.
When her father died in 1932, she moved with her mother to California.
She attended UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles] for a
while before trying newspaper and radio writing and acting.
In 1939, she married William Stephenson, an architect whom she met
when he was working as a dance instructor at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
He designed homes for many of Hollywood's leading figures, including
the all-electric showcase home that General Electric built for Ronald
and Nancy Reagan in Pacific Palisades [California].
William Stephenson died in October. Patricia is survived by their
three daughters, Cecilia Duncan, Florenz Crossley and Susan Plemons; a
son, W. Robert Stephenson Jr.; nine grandchildren; and three great-
grandchildren.
She helped preserve her father's legacy in the 1963 book "The
Ziegfelds' Girl: Confessions of an Abnormally Happy Childhood," a warm
and often hilarious autobiography. She also contributed an
introduction to a well-regarded biography of her father, "The Ziegfeld
Touch: The Life and Times of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.," written by distant
cousins Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-ziegfeld26apr26,1,4414170.story
Z
KDStep...@gmail.com
>
> Z
She was my grandmother, an amazing woman, mother, grandmother and
friend. I will miss her dearly and only hope to be half the woman that
she was and that was so much more than the daughter of two wonderful
people.
Kathi
wrote:
>On Apr 26, 1:30 pm, DGH <perin...@eudoramail.com> wrote:
>> -
>>
>> Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, 91; daughter of Broadway impresario
>>
>> From a Times Staff Writer
>>
>> Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, the daughter of legendary Broadway
>> impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, died of congestive heart failure April 11
>> [2008] at her home in Los Angeles [California]. She was 91.
<snip>
>
>She was my grandmother, an amazing woman, mother, grandmother and
>friend. I will miss her dearly and only hope to be half the woman that
>she was and that was so much more than the daughter of two wonderful
>people.
My condolences, KD. How beautiful that you had such a treasure for a
grandmother!
Kathi
.
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Jane Margaret Laight
>
> - Show quoted text -
my most sincere condolences--I read her autobiography years ago and
was jealous (sorta), particularly about having your own pet elephant,
but I was a weird kid anyway...
Please extend my best wishes to your father and aunts--as well as to
the rest of you; I truly wish you well.
Jane Margaret Laight
currently in New York City