Jennie Jerome Churchill

Edith Wharton:  Born Jan. 24, 1862

On this day, 150 years ago, Edith Wharton was born.  The chronicler of New York City's cosseted set wrote more than 100 novels and short stories and was the first woman to win the Pulitzer.  Her last novel, The Buccaneers, told of wealthy American heiresses snagging titled but cash-strapped European husbands.  There were hundreds of such heiresses in the years prior to World War I.  Downton Abbey's Lady Cora is a fictional example; Jennie Jerome Churchill, mother of Winston, was the real thing.

Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill became engaged two days after they met; Winston was born 8 months after they married.  Lord Randolph died at age 45 from an illness thought at the time to be syphilis.  After his death, Jennie married a man Winston's age, chartered a boat to turn it into a hospital to treat soldiers injured in the Boer War and wrote her memoirs.  The second marriage didn't take, but she married again, this time to a husband three years younger than Winston.  She died at age 67 of complications from a broken ankle.

As for Winston, he lived on to a ripe old age of 91 and died on this day 47 years ago.

Born Nov. 30, 1874.  Died Jan. 24, 1965

Though the myth of Jennie as the inventor of the Manhattan cocktail has been debunked, I think I'll have one today in their honor.