Eileen Ford. I am eternally grateful to Eileen for her role in my mother’s success, and her help with my own career as a model. The afternoon I spent with Eileen toward the end of her life, when she shared memories of my mother, is one I will never forget.
Robert Lacey. Thank you for your kind support of this book. Your biography of Eileen Ford, Model Woman, is such a treasure to me. It’s given me such insight into what my mother’s life was like as a model. I was so moved and honored to see her remembered in the book as one of the top models of the 1940s and ’50s.
Reconnecting with my mother’s family has been such an important part of the journey. As a result, I feel as though I have truly met my family for the first time, and have made friends for life who have enriched me in so many ways. I am thankful to my cousin Tracy Hosfelt, my initial point of contact with the family, who reached out to me on Facebook in 2012. Tracy, thank you for sharing your photographs, memories, and insights, for meeting with us when we came to Steubenville, and for reconnecting me with my mother’s cousin Sandra Hart.
Sandra Hart. It has been such a joy having you in my life. You’ve helped me understand who my mother really was, that she was truly a good person. A special gift along the way has been meeting your son, Emerson Hart, and your daughter, Brett Thompson. Emerson is the lead singer for the band Tonic—I had always loved Emerson’s music, and it has been so wonderful to get to know him, to meet his family, and to go to his concerts. Your family truly understands the heartbreak mental illness brings, and having your support has meant a huge amount to me.
I am so grateful to my uncle, Terry Hosfelt, for sharing many photos and connecting me with my mother’s cousins Patricia and Jacqueline.
Patricia James and Jacqueline Bendure. You shared so many wonderful memories of my mother as a young girl, and your love for her is so clear. I simply would have had no other way to have such incredible insight into her childhood and past. The time we spent together will forever be a treasured memory.
I’m thankful to have been in touch with Bill Kirkpatrick, Joyce Lee, and Donna Hosfelt. I’m also so grateful to have connected with Bobbi Baur, daughter of my mother’s late half sister, Terri, and Bobbi’s father, Jim Baur. Bobbi and Jim, thank you for sharing Terri’s notes on my mother.
The City of Steubenville. Thank you for making my mother your Sesquicentennial Queen all those years ago. It gave her a chance to pursue her dream of modeling. A warm thank-you to Charlie Green and Michael Giles for making our day at the Jefferson Historical Society in Steubenville so special. I’m so appreciative of the materials about my mother that you have preserved and shared with me, along with important contributions to the collection from Bill Croskey. Thank you to Rex Tate for being the driving force behind the 2008 tribute to my mother. Thank you to Dave Gossett from the Steubenville Herald Star who wrote an article explaining that I was looking for people who had known my mother, which helped me to connect with a number of her friends.
My mother’s friends in Steubenville: Dottie Bossert, Jane McHugh Noltemeyer, Kay Gosseye, John Criss, and Nancy Peterson. Thank you for sharing your memories and your insights.
The organizers of the exhibit From Philadelphia to Monaco: Grace Kelly Beyond the Icon at the Michener Museum of Art. I feel so fortunate to have attended your “Last Look” event, where I was able to see photographs and artifacts from the royal wedding, and where I had a chance to meet Grace’s nephew Chris Levine, who was so helpful prior to my trip to Monaco.
Profound thanks are due to Prince Albert of Monaco and the staff at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, including Christine Sprile, Christel Brizi, Yasmin Zagoni, and Marina Matkova. Thank you so much for our VIP private tour; we so enjoyed learning about the wonderful history of the palace. Thank you to Thomas Fuillerion and Olivia Oantoni at the palace archives for the materials you shared with us—it was a special pleasure to see the original seating plan for the cathedral wedding, including my father’s name. Thanks also to Geraldine Byrne at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco for her kind assistance.
Researching this book has given me a new appreciation and renewed respect for libraries and librarians. Thanks to their collections I have been able to document my mother’s eight-year modeling career via photographs from scores of magazines. I spent months visiting libraries across the country, scouring stacks of bound volumes containing fragile vintage magazines, their yellowed pages providing a window into another world. I would turn each page deliberately, and sit back when I stumbled on yet another image of my mother, knowing how an early prospector must have felt upon finding a nugget of gold. Special thanks to the Gladys Marcus Library at FIT, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, the New York Public Library, the Temple University Library, the Jefferson County Library Sciappa Branch (thank you to Sandy Day for sending so many articles from my mother’s past), and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (thank you to Cheryl Adams). And to all the magazine collectors on eBay! Thank you for respecting the past and not throwing out those old editions. My collection includes more than eighty magazines featuring my mother; they
