Mary Hayward Weir, born Mary Emma Hayward (1915–1968), was an American steel heiress and socialite. She was the wealthy widow of Pittsburgh steel king

Ernest T. Weir Ernest Tener Weir (August 1, 1875 — June 26, 1957) was an American steel manufacturer best known for having founded both ISG Weirton Steel, Weirton Steel (which became National Steel Corporation) and the town of Weirton, West Virginia. Weir was ...

, and the former wife of Polish author

Jerzy Kosiński Jerzy Kosiński (born Józef Lewinkopf; ; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II and, as a ...

. The Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton, West Virginia is named after her.Dickson, Angela. "E.T. Weir to Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame."
''Weirton Daily News.'' March 14, 2010.

Personal life

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, she was working as a secretary for the National Steel Corporation in 1941 when she met and later married her boss, Chairman and CEO

. She divorced her first husband, Donald Reeve, to marry Weir. Ernest was 40 years her senior and was recently divorced with two grown sons roughly Mary's age. Mary Hayward and Ernest T. Weir were married on December 11, 1941,"National Steel Chairman and Bride." ''New York Times.'' December 12, 1941. and together had one son, David Weir, born in 1944."Ernest T. Weir Dies." ''New York Times.'' June 27, 1957. She was widowed in 1957 when her husband died at the age of 81."Ernest T. Weir Dies at 81." ''Wall Street Journal.'' June 27, 1957. On January 11, 1962, she married the Polish author

after a romance of 18 months. Kosiński had emigrated from Poland in December 1957 to the United States. Weir and Kosinski met in the summer of 1960 in New York City when the heiress hired the young Kosiński to catalog her private library. Weir was a close friend of coffee heiress Abigail Folger of the Folgers Coffee family, and it was through her husband Jerzy Kosiński that Folger met her future boyfriend Wojciech Frykowski (Folger and Frykowski were murdered in 1969 by the Manson Family). In 1966, Weir divorced Kosiński, but she still remained a close friend. Weir was known for her never-ending volunteer work in many different areas as well as her extensive travels around the world. She was known to have battled many serious bouts of depression beginning as far back as 1950, and at times. suffered from blackouts as a result of this. She also struggled with alcoholism for years.

Cultural references

On June 2, 1958 in Weirton, West Virginia, The Mary H. Weir Public Library was named in her honor with Weir's cutting the ribbon in person. In 1965, Kosiński dedicated his novel ''

The Painted Bird ''The Painted Bird ''is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central and Eastern Europe. T ...

'' to her, and it was at this time that she began to feel ill. Kosinski fictionalized his marriage to Mary Hayward Weir in his 1977 novel ''Blind Date'' referring to her under the pseudonym Mary–Jane Kirkland.

Death

Mary Hayward Weir was diagnosed with a brain tumour, of which she died on August 1, 1968, aged 52 or 53. She left Kosiński nothing in her will.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weir, Mary Hayward American socialites People from Indianapolis Socialites from New York City Deaths from brain tumor 1915 births 1968 deaths