Frances Scott "Scottie" Fitzgerald (October 26, 1921 – June 18, 1986) was an American writer and journalist and the only child of novelist

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

and

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald Zelda Fitzgerald (; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, dancer, and socialite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she was noted for her beauty and high spirits, and was dubbed by her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald a ...

. She worked for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''The Northern Virginia Sun'', and others, and was a prominent member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1992.

Early life

Fitzgerald was born in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

. Upon her birth, her mother supposedly remarked that she hoped Scottie would be a "beautiful little fool", which Daisy Buchanan also says in ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...

'', F. Scott Fitzgerald's best-known novel. Scottie Fitzgerald spent her childhood moving from place to place with her parents – including time in Paris and Antibes in France, and five years' residence in a beach house her father rented on the edge of

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

not far from

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. She attended

Calvert School Calvert School, founded in 1897, is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational lower and middle school located in Baltimore, Maryland. Calvert School is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) as well as the Ass ...

and briefly attended the Bryn Mawr School while her mother Zelda received treatment at

Sheppard Pratt Hospital The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, known to many simply as Sheppard Pratt, is a psychiatric hospital located in Towson, a northern suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1853, it is one of the oldest private psychiatric hospitals in the nati ...

. In 1936, Fitzgerald began attending the

Ethel Walker School The Ethel Walker School, also commonly referred to as “Walker’s”, is a private, college preparatory, boarding and day school for girls in grades 6 through 12 plus postgraduate located in Simsbury, Connecticut. History Founded in 191 ...

,* a boarding school in Connecticut, but was expelled for sneaking away from campus in order to hitchhike to Yale. She attended

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

. Hoping that she would not repeat his academic failures, her father wrote letters to her urging her to take rigorous classes and work hard. She graduated from Vassar in 1942, seventeen months after her father's death.

Personal life and career

Fitzgerald and her first husband, Samuel Jackson "Jack" Lanahan, a prominent Washington lawyer, were popular hosts in Washington in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, she wrote musical comedies about the Washington social scene that were performed annually to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Washington. Her show ''Onward and Upward with the Arts'' was considered for a Broadway run by producer David Merrick. Fitzgerald had four children with her first husband: Thomas Addison Lanahan; Eleanor Anne Lanahan; Samuel Jackson Lanahan, Jr.; and Cecilia Scott Lanahan. Their eldest child, Thomas, known as "Tim", committed suicide at the age of 27 in 1973. Eleanor "Bobbie" Lanahan, an artist and writer, wrote a biography of her mother, ''Scottie, The Daughter of ... The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith'' (1995). Fitzgerald's second marriage, to Grove Smith, ended in divorce in 1979.

Later life and death

In 1973, when Fitzgerald was legally separated from husband Grove Smith, she moved from Washington, D.C. to her mother's home town of

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

. According to a book authored by her daughter Eleanor after her death, she told her family and many friends that she was moving far away from Washington because she was disgusted by constant news reports of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

. Several months after Fitzgerald's relocation, she was attending a party in Montgomery when she was informed via long-distance telephone call of her son's suicide. She made polite excuses about leaving the party without giving the other guests any clue as to what had happened. Fitzgerald became active in the state Democratic Party in Alabama, and worked with

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...

during his campaign trips to Montgomery over the years. During the 12 years she lived in Montgomery before developing throat cancer, she traveled frequently to visit her three surviving children and grandchildren, none of whom lived near Alabama. Fitzgerald died at her Montgomery home from throat cancer in 1986, aged 64.''Orlando Sentinel'' obituary
Retrieved April 2, 2013. Shortly before she died, she told her three surviving children that she wished she had quit cigarette smoking many years earlier. She is buried next to her parents in Rockville, Maryland.Montgomery College
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References

External links

* Th

Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Frances Scott 1921 births American women journalists American people of Irish descent Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Writers from Montgomery, Alabama 1986 deaths Vassar College alumni 20th-century American writers Journalists from Alabama Bryn Mawr School people 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women