Peaches Browning born Frances Belle Heenan, was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress, most famous for her failed marriage to New York real estate mogul, Edward West "Daddy" Browning (1875–1934). The story became one of the most sensational scandals of the Roaring Twenties

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism...

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On June 23, 1926 (her sixteenth birthday), mere weeks after meeting the 51 year-old Edward Browning, Peaches and "Daddy" were wed. Later that same year, Peaches tried to obtain a divorce during which the White Plains, New York

White Plains, New York

White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...

 trial gained repeated coverage by New York city tabloid newspapers such as the New York Daily News

New York Daily News

The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

, rival New York Daily Mirror

New York Daily Mirror

The New York Daily Mirror was an American morning tabloid newspaper first published on June 24, 1924, in New York City by the William Randolph Hearst organization as a contrast to their mainstream broadsheets, the Evening Journal and New York American, later consolidated into the New York Journal...

and the more louche New York Graphic

New York Graphic

The New York Evening Graphic was a tabloid newspaper published from 1924 to 1932 by Bernarr "Bodylove" Macfadden...

, which published a notorious composograph

Composograph

Composograph refers to a forerunner method of photo manipulation and is a retouched photographic collage popularized by publisher and physical culture advocate Bernarr Macfadden in his New York Graphic in 1924....

 of the couple.

The story was soon picked up by the national newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

s and the couple became well known in US popular culture of the time. Among the notable incidents were her allegations of her husband's odd behavior including the fact that he kept a honking African goose

Goose

The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....

 in their bedroom. The judge agreed with his version, ruling that Peaches had abandoned her husband without cause, and cut him free. Peaches' notoriety gained her a career in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

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She was managed by Marvin Welt (1883–1953), one of the first theatrical agents to demand a percentage of total ticket sales for some of his clients.

When Edward Browning died in 1934, Peaches was awarded $6000 as a widow's portion.

Peaches went off into vaudeville and onto three more husbands, before she slipped in her bathroom and died in 1956, at age 46. She is buried in the Ferncliff Cemetery

Ferncliff Cemetery

Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...

 in Hartsdale, New York

Hartsdale, New York

Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....

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Further reading

• Greenburg, Michael, Peaches & Daddy, The Overlook Press.