Phelan Beale (May 23, 1881 – June 12, 1956) was an American attorney and sportsman in New York City who was married to

Edith Ewing Bouvier Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (October 5, 1895 – February 5, 1977) was an American socialite and singer known for her reclusive and eccentric lifestyle. Known as Big Edie, she was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of Jacqueline ...

, an aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Onassis. Beale is probably best remembered as the absent father chronicled in the Grey Gardens saga portrayed in a 1975 movie documentary, 2006 Broadway musical, and 2009 HBO film, all of which were named for his home in

East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a total ...

Early life

Beale was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. He was the grandson of John D. Phelan (1809-1879), an Alabama Speaker of the House and Alabama Supreme Court Justice. Beale graduated from the University of the South in 1902 and from Columbia University Law School in 1905.

Career

He formed the law practice of Bouvier and Beale with

Jacqueline Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

's grandfather John Vernou Bouvier Jr. He later served a two-year term as president of the

New York Southern Society History In the legacy of Algernon Sydney Sullivan and Mary Mildred Hammond Sullivan, George Sullivan established the foundation in 1934. The Foundation primarily aims at providing financial assistance to deserving students in approximately 61 col ...

before he was succeeded by Supreme Court Justice William Harman Black in 1937.

Properties

In 1924, Beale and his wife acquired the 28-room

Grey Gardens ''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a der ...

mansion fronting the ocean (the oceanfront parcels were sold much later) in the

Georgica Pond Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999. The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East ...

neighborhood. Beale and his wife separated in 1931 and were legally divorced in 1946, but continued his presence in East Hampton. As part of the divorce, Edith was given the East Hampton house Grey Gardens. He owned the Grey Goose Gun Club of Cedar Point, a hunting preserve at what is now Cedar Point County Park in East Hampton. In 1937, he expanded it by buying the abandoned Cedar Island Light on an island next to his property. For four years, he rented out the lighthouse property to Isabel and Winthrop Bradley of Connecticut as a summer retreat and then this couple bought the property in 1943. Washed up sand during the

New England Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The storm ...

joined the island to the land via an

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

. The lodge is now the park foreman's residence just north of the park's general store.

Personal life

In 1917, he married Bouvier's daughter

(later nicknamed "Big Edie"). Ushers at the January 17, 1917, wedding at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City included Jackie's father

John Vernou Bouvier III John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III ( ; May 19, 1891 – August 3, 1957) was an American Wall Street stockbroker and socialite. He was the father of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and of socialite Lee Radziwill, and was the father-in- ...

and W. Sergeant Bouvier. They had three children: *

Edith Bouvier Beale Edith Bouvier Beale (November 7, 1917 – January 14, 2002), nicknamed Little Edie, was an American socialite, fashion model, and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jacqueline Onassis and Lee Radziwill, Lee ...

(1917–2002), known as "Little Edie". * Phelan Beale, Jr. (1920–1993), who married Rosella Ramsey in 1942. *

Bouvier Beale Bouvier Beale (February 13, 1922 – May 3, 1994) was a prominent American lawyer. Beale was one of the sons of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and was also a brother of Edith Bouvier Beale, whose lives were highlighted in the documentary ''Grey Ga ...

(1922–1994), who married Katharine Ridgely Jones in 1942. In 1947, he remarried to Dorothy D. Durham of

Poplarville, Mississippi Poplarville is a city in Pearl River County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,894. It is the county seat of Pearl River County. It hosts an annual Blueberry Jubilee, which includes rides, craft vendors ...

. He died in

Pass Christian, Mississippi Pass Christian (), nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,307 at the 2019 census. History Pre-European history ...

in 1956. Big Edie died in 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Phelan 01 1881 births 1956 deaths 20th-century American lawyers Beale family Bouvier family Columbia Law School alumni Lawyers from Montgomery, Alabama Lawyers from New York City People from Chattanooga, Tennessee People from East Hampton (town), New York Sewanee: The University of the South alumni