Susan Blanchard (socialite)

Not to be confused with Susan Blanchard (actress).

Susan Blanchard (born March 8, 1928) is an American socialite and former lyricist and theatrical producer. She was the third wife of actor Henry Fonda, with whom she adopted a daughter, Amy (born 1953), and the second wife of actor Richard Widmark.

Background

The younger child of Dorothy Kiaora Blanchard (born June 7, 1899 — died August 3, 1987), a native of Australia, and Henry Jacobson, a New York businessman, Susan Jacobson took her mother's surname after her parents' divorce and was known as Susan Blanchard thereafter.

In 1929, her mother, a former actress turned interior decorator, married the lyricist and producer Oscar Hammerstein II. Susan Blanchard had four siblings: a brother, Henry Jacobson, Jr.; a half-brother, James Blanchard Hammerstein (1931–1999); and two step-siblings, William and Alice Hammerstein.

Susan Blanchard studied at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Her only sibling was an older brother, né Henry Samuel Jacobson (b. April 27, 1926 — d. January 28, 1997).

Marriages

• Henry Fonda (December 27, 1950 – May 1956) (divorced); one daughter, Amy (born and adopted 1953)
• Howard Taylor (December 30, 1957-June 22, 1961) (divorced); three sons,two daughters, John and George(born 1958), Janice and Zachery(born 1959), Marilyn(born 1960),
• Michael Wager (married 1962, divorced)
• Richard Widmark (1999 to his death in 2008)

External links

• Wedding photo of Blanchard and Henry Fonda, 1950