Leila Hadley
Encyclopedia
Leila Hadley was an American travel writer and socialite. Her books include Give Me the World (1958) and A Journey With Elsa Cloud (1997).
for 'cosmic play,' which should register in anyone’s mind forever, but doesn't". She attended the Green Vale School, Long Island, with Gloria Vanderbilt
, then St. Timothy's School, Catonsville, Maryland. She was introduced to society at the Junior Assembly on December 23, 1943, held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manhattan.
, and the son of Arthur Twining Hadley
, president of Yale University
, on March 2, 1944. After the birth of her son, Arthur Twining Hadley III, in February 1945, her one and a half year marriage ended in divorce.
Hadley obtained employment in public relations, first working for cartoonist Al Capp
and was described in a 1950 article in Look
magazine as "the chic, high-level, in-the-know, celebrity-surrounded career girl that millions of young women dream of becoming in New York." She later was publicity director for The Howdy Doody Show.
In 1953 she married inventor and geologist, Yvor Hyatt Smitter. This marriage lasted 12 years. They divorced in 1968, after having three children.
In 1969, she married Swedish immigrant, Hans Gillner, car salesman and 16 years her junior (marriage later annulled as she was getting divorced from her fourth husband, William C. Musham). In 1976 she married businessman William C. Musham, that ended in divorce in 1978. January 1990 she married her fifth husband (technically her fourth since the Gillner marriage was annulled), Henry Luce III. That marriage lasted until Luce's death in September 2005.
from Singapore
to Ceylon, then from Beirut
to Malta
. It was on the schooner where she met geologist, Yvor Hyatt Smitter, the son of author, Wessel Smitter. S. J. Perelman
, who urged her to take the trip in the first place, then encouraged her to write Give Me the World (1958) about her journey.
After returning to America and marrying Smitter on 24 January 1953, she lived in South Africa
, then in Jamaica
, then in the West Indies. She worked at Diplomat magazine in 1966 and at The Saturday Evening Post
as cartoon editor in 1968-69. She wrote a number of books, including How to Travel With Children in Europe (1963), Fielding's Guide to Traveling with Children in Europe (1972) and Traveling With Children in the U.S.A. (1976). She co-wrote the 1966 book Manners for Young People with John Barclay, who gave dancing lessons to children at the Pierre Hotel. She and Smitter had three children before they divorced in 1969.
, India
, where she had been studying Buddhism at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
and in Manali, in meditation retreat. The trip became the inspiration for her book A Journey With Elsa Cloud, which provided a fictionalized account of her own experiences. The book's title was derived from the private name, elsa cloud, her daughter created as a fifteen year old runaway, when she daydreamed she would like to be the sea or else a cloud; elsa cloud. Her daughter denounced the book.
The trip triggered an interest in Tibetan people
. She became a member of the board of Tibet House
and her experiences on her trip became the source of her 1979 pamphlet Tibet 20 Years After the Chinese Takeover.
In 1975, she married businessman William Musham; the marriage ended in divorce less than three years later, due in part, according to Musham's son, to Hadley's "decadent" behavior and lifestyle. On January 5, 1990 she married http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/06/style/henry-luce-3d-and-leila-hadley-exchange-vows.html Henry Luce III, son of Henry Robinson Luce, the co-founder of Time Magazine and head of The Henry Luce Foundation. The couple remained together until his death in 2005.
for several years, died at age 83 on February 10, 2009 at her Manhattan
home. She also lived on Fishers Island, New York, where she is buried next to Henry Luce III at the Union Chapel. She was survived by her eldest son, Dr. Arthur T. Hadley III, Matthew Eliott (who had changed his last name from Smitter in the 1970s), Caroline Nicholson, Victoria California Van Duzer Barlow, stepson Henry Christopher Luce, stepdaughter Lila Luce, and six grandchildren.
Biography
She was born Beatrice Leila Eliott Burton and grew up in Old Westbury, Long Island, New York. Her father, Frank V. Burton Jr., inherited his business in the cotton trade. Her middle name, which she took as her first name, was pronounced "LEE-la" and was, according to her, "HindiHindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
for 'cosmic play,' which should register in anyone’s mind forever, but doesn't". She attended the Green Vale School, Long Island, with Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
, then St. Timothy's School, Catonsville, Maryland. She was introduced to society at the Junior Assembly on December 23, 1943, held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manhattan.
Marriages and divorces
She married Arthur Twining Hadley, Jr., a Lieutenant in a Tank destroyer battalionTank destroyer battalion (United States)
The tank destroyer battalion was a type of unit used by the United States Army during World War II. The unit was organized in one of two different forms—a towed battalion equipped with anti-tank guns, or a self-propelled battalion equipped with armored tank destroyers. U.S. Army doctrine held that...
, and the son of Arthur Twining Hadley
Arthur Twining Hadley
Arthur Twining Hadley was an economist who served as President of Yale University from 1899 to 1921.-Biography:...
, president of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, on March 2, 1944. After the birth of her son, Arthur Twining Hadley III, in February 1945, her one and a half year marriage ended in divorce.
Hadley obtained employment in public relations, first working for cartoonist Al Capp
Al Capp
Alfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
and was described in a 1950 article in Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine as "the chic, high-level, in-the-know, celebrity-surrounded career girl that millions of young women dream of becoming in New York." She later was publicity director for The Howdy Doody Show.
In 1953 she married inventor and geologist, Yvor Hyatt Smitter. This marriage lasted 12 years. They divorced in 1968, after having three children.
In 1969, she married Swedish immigrant, Hans Gillner, car salesman and 16 years her junior (marriage later annulled as she was getting divorced from her fourth husband, William C. Musham). In 1976 she married businessman William C. Musham, that ended in divorce in 1978. January 1990 she married her fifth husband (technically her fourth since the Gillner marriage was annulled), Henry Luce III. That marriage lasted until Luce's death in September 2005.
Trip around the world
She quit her job in 1951 and took her son, then six years old, on a trip around the world that lasted one and a half years. She sailed on a barkantine schoonerSchooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
from Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
to Ceylon, then from Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. It was on the schooner where she met geologist, Yvor Hyatt Smitter, the son of author, Wessel Smitter. S. J. Perelman
S. J. Perelman
Sidney Joseph Perelman, almost always known as S. J. Perelman , was an American humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker...
, who urged her to take the trip in the first place, then encouraged her to write Give Me the World (1958) about her journey.
After returning to America and marrying Smitter on 24 January 1953, she lived in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, then in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, then in the West Indies. She worked at Diplomat magazine in 1966 and at The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
as cartoon editor in 1968-69. She wrote a number of books, including How to Travel With Children in Europe (1963), Fielding's Guide to Traveling with Children in Europe (1972) and Traveling With Children in the U.S.A. (1976). She co-wrote the 1966 book Manners for Young People with John Barclay, who gave dancing lessons to children at the Pierre Hotel. She and Smitter had three children before they divorced in 1969.
India and A Journey With Elsa Cloud
She visited her daughter, Victoria Barlow, who was living in DharamsalaDharamsala
Dharamshala or Dharamsala is a city in northern India. It was formerly known as Bhagsu; it is the winter seat of government of the state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of the Kangra district....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, where she had been studying Buddhism at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives ' is a Tibetan library in Dharamsala, India. The library was founded by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama on June 11, 1970 and is considered one of the most important libraries and institutions of Tibetan works in the world.The library...
and in Manali, in meditation retreat. The trip became the inspiration for her book A Journey With Elsa Cloud, which provided a fictionalized account of her own experiences. The book's title was derived from the private name, elsa cloud, her daughter created as a fifteen year old runaway, when she daydreamed she would like to be the sea or else a cloud; elsa cloud. Her daughter denounced the book.
The trip triggered an interest in Tibetan people
Tibetan people
The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
. She became a member of the board of Tibet House
Tibet House
Tibet House US was founded in 1987 by Columbia University professor Robert Thurman, actor Richard Gere and modern composer Philip Glass at the behest of the 14th H.H. Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. It was initially organized in New York City, USA, and the Tibet House US is still based there...
and her experiences on her trip became the source of her 1979 pamphlet Tibet 20 Years After the Chinese Takeover.
In 1975, she married businessman William Musham; the marriage ended in divorce less than three years later, due in part, according to Musham's son, to Hadley's "decadent" behavior and lifestyle. On January 5, 1990 she married http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/06/style/henry-luce-3d-and-leila-hadley-exchange-vows.html Henry Luce III, son of Henry Robinson Luce, the co-founder of Time Magazine and head of The Henry Luce Foundation. The couple remained together until his death in 2005.
Lawsuit; sued by her daughter and granddaughter
In a lawsuit filed in May 2003 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/24/1053585743481.html, Hadley's daughter, Caroline Nicholson, stated that Leila Hadley Luce and Henry Luce III, who died ten days before being deposed, were continuing a prior pattern of committing incest and child sexual abuse of Caroline in the 1970s by sexually abusing Caroline's daughter, their granddaughter, in the 1990s. Caroline claimed that Luce had repeatedly tried to rape her, sexually abused her over a six year span, and that she had been lured into bed by Luce and her mother. Hadley denied the allegations, and insisted that the suit had been an attempt to obtain money from her. The case was due to go to trial on January 12, 2009 but was settled out of court eight weeks before Hadley died.Death
Hadley, who had suffered from emphysemaEmphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
for several years, died at age 83 on February 10, 2009 at her Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
home. She also lived on Fishers Island, New York, where she is buried next to Henry Luce III at the Union Chapel. She was survived by her eldest son, Dr. Arthur T. Hadley III, Matthew Eliott (who had changed his last name from Smitter in the 1970s), Caroline Nicholson, Victoria California Van Duzer Barlow, stepson Henry Christopher Luce, stepdaughter Lila Luce, and six grandchildren.