Heiress, Debutante. Born Brenda Diana Duff Frazier, her father Frank Duff Frazier, came from a prosperous Boston family. Her mother, the former Brenda Germaine Henshaw Williams-Taylor, was the only daughter of Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor (a general manager of the Bank of Montreal who was knighted in 1910 and combined his middle name and birth surname into a new hyphenated surname) and his wife, the former Jane Fayrer Henshaw. Frazier's parents were married in December 1916. Both of Frazier's parents drank heavily. At the time of her birth, Frazier's father went on an alcoholic bender and did not return home for months. After public fights and infidelity from both sides, the couple divorced in January 1926. In March 1926, Frazier's mother married Frederick N. Watriss with whom she had been having an affair. After Watriss' death, she married Henry Pierrepont Perry. Over the next eight years, Frazier's parents fought over custody of Brenda. Both attempted to gain sole custody by accusing the other of immoral behavior, alcoholism and being an unfit parent. During the custody battle, she was largely ignored by both parents and spent the majority of her time at school (Miss Chapin's School for Girls, Miss Porter's School and a finishing school in Munich) or with her paternal grandmother. In 1933, a judge finally ruled that Frazier's parents would share custody. The judge stated, "Neither parents appears to have been in the past, nor appears to be now, any paragon of virtue in parenthood." A month after the decision was handed down, Frank Frazier died of throat cancer. Although Frazier had shown promise in music and art, she later lamented that she had never been given a chance to let those talents develop, or to complete her education. The year before her 1938 debut, she was attending a finishing school in Munich. She had begged her mother to let her stay there and continue to study, but her mother refused, and thus her formal education ended at the age of 15. With her mother's blessing, Frazier began appearing at café society functions and was regularly photographed and featured in the society pages of magazines and newspapers at the age of 12. By the time she was a teenager, the press and public began taking a keen interest in wealthy members of high society who had not lost their fortunes due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Readers who were living through Great Depression were eager to read about the lives of the wealthy and glamorous "Poor Little Rich Girls" such as Frazier, Gloria Vanderbilt, Doris Duke, and Barbara Hutton were frequently written about and photographed. The press eventually began calling them "Glamour Girls". Frazier began to gain attention as a teenager after columnist Walter Winchell began writing about her. In 1936, two years before her society debut, society journalist Maury Henry Biddle Paul (known as Cholly Knickerbocker) wrote, "It may seem a bit early, but I – here and now – predict Brenda Frazier will be one of the belles – if not the Belle – of her season." Cholly Knickerbocker's prediction boosted Frazier's profile and her upcoming debutant ball became one of the most anticipated social events of 1938. Frazier was routinely photographed and popularized the famous "white-face" look; powdered white skin contrasted by red painted lips combined with perfectly coiffed dark hair (Frazier later said she suffered from neck problems because she rarely moved her head for fear of mussing her hair). During this time, Frazier developed anorexia and bulimia to keep her weight down. Both disorders would plague Frazier for the remainder of her life. In 1938, the year of her debut, Brenda Frazier was dubbed the #1 Glamour Girl. Later that year, in November 1938, she achieved the apex of fame—her face on the cover of Life magazine. The enclosed article inside gave hardly a mention of Frazier but from it she secured international fame. Frazier would go on to pose in ads for Woodbury soap and Studebaker cars (even though she could not drive) among others. Frazier's debutant party was held on December 27, 1938 at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City. The party was attended by 2,000 people including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. whom Frazier danced with. Despite being sick with the flu and having swollen feet, Frazier danced with Fairbanks, Jr. until 6:30 am. Frazier later recalled collapsing into bed from exhaustion in the early morning hours and not being able to remember any of the day that followed. Frazier's debutant party was a success and was featured on the front page of newspapers around the world. She was dubbed the "Debutante of the Century". In 1939, the word celebutante, a portmanteaux of the words "celebrity" and "débutante", was coined to describe Frazier. However, not all of the attention Frazier and other heiresses received was positive. Some media outlets and critics commented that Frazier was only famous for being rich and possessed no discernible talents. Frazier would later recall being booed at a Broadway nightclub one evening after she was introduced to the audience alongside other celebrities such as Ben Blue and Sonja Henie. Although she felt humiliated afterward, she acknowledged that her critics were right insofar as she was not a true celebrity, only a debutante. Frazier later admitted that she was never truly happy as a debutante. She said there were times when she did relish the attention she received, but that she had never felt loved by either of her parents or valued as anything more than a status symbol or a trophy. In the book Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier by Gioia Diliberto, Frazier's daughter Victoria Kelly remembered her mother saying, "I'm not a celebrity. I don't deserve all this. I haven't done anything at all. I'm just a debutante." Her family was equally dumbfounded. "I fear Brenda's being spoiled," said a great-aunt at the time of her great-niece's debut. "I bemoan all this spectacular notoriety." At the age of 21, Frazier inherited a total of $3,900,000 ($56.3 million today) from her father and her paternal grandmother, who died in 1936. Frazier married football star Shipwreck Kelly at her mother's apartment at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City on June 30, 1941. She gave birth to a daughter, Brenda Victoria, in 1945. Frazier and Kelly divorced in 1956. After several tempestuous relationships, including ones with cartoonist Peter Arno and Howard Hughes, Frazier and daughter moved to a small town near Cape Cod. On March 3, 1957, she married sales executive Robert Chatfield-Taylor. Frazier later told friends that she regretted marrying Chatfield-Taylor right away. They divorced in 1962. On March 16, 1961, Frazier attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. She was discovered and survived the attempt but would make thirty more suicide attempts throughout her life. In 1963, she wrote a piece for Life magazine – the same publication on whose cover she had appeared 25 years earlier (although the cover of that week's issue was given to the state funeral of the assassinated President Kennedy) – titled "My Debut – A Horror". In the article, she related that she was largely unhappy during her debutante year and, after years of therapy, she looked at photos of the event and noted "the mockery of faked smiles…and how many people there are in the world who were doomed like me by unfortunate childhoods to adult lives plagued by fears and inner emptiness." Frazier also detailed the many nervous breakdowns she suffered due to the negative attention she received and was also critical of her family for "being pushed into social functions." The article sparked renewed interest in Frazier and she appeared on several talk shows where she discussed her experiences as a "celebutante". In her later years, Frazier retreated from public life and divided her time between her homes in East Harwich and Beacon Hill. She became reclusive and developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol. A friend later stated that Frazier took "…pills to go to sleep and pills to wake up, pills for digestion and pills to go to the bathroom, and pills to be happy and pills to be sad, and pills to be." In 1966, photographer Diane Arbus took a now-famous picture of Frazier for Esquire magazine. The photo featured a gaunt Frazier heavily made up in her signature white face powder and red lipstick, propped up in bed with a cigarette in hand looking wearily toward the camera. During the final ten years of her life, Frazier suffered from ill health due to her long battles with anorexia and bulimia and was routinely hospitalized. On May 3, 1982, Franzier died of bone cancer at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston at the age of 60.
Heiress, Debutante. Born Brenda Diana Duff Frazier, her father Frank Duff Frazier, came from a prosperous Boston family. Her mother, the former Brenda Germaine Henshaw Williams-Taylor, was the only daughter of Sir Frederick Williams-Taylor (a general manager of the Bank of Montreal who was knighted in 1910 and combined his middle name and birth surname into a new hyphenated surname) and his wife, the former Jane Fayrer Henshaw. Frazier's parents were married in December 1916. Both of Frazier's parents drank heavily. At the time of her birth, Frazier's father went on an alcoholic bender and did not return home for months. After public fights and infidelity from both sides, the couple divorced in January 1926. In March 1926, Frazier's mother married Frederick N. Watriss with whom she had been having an affair. After Watriss' death, she married Henry Pierrepont Perry. Over the next eight years, Frazier's parents fought over custody of Brenda. Both attempted to gain sole custody by accusing the other of immoral behavior, alcoholism and being an unfit parent. During the custody battle, she was largely ignored by both parents and spent the majority of her time at school (Miss Chapin's School for Girls, Miss Porter's School and a finishing school in Munich) or with her paternal grandmother. In 1933, a judge finally ruled that Frazier's parents would share custody. The judge stated, "Neither parents appears to have been in the past, nor appears to be now, any paragon of virtue in parenthood." A month after the decision was handed down, Frank Frazier died of throat cancer. Although Frazier had shown promise in music and art, she later lamented that she had never been given a chance to let those talents develop, or to complete her education. The year before her 1938 debut, she was attending a finishing school in Munich. She had begged her mother to let her stay there and continue to study, but her mother refused, and thus her formal education ended at the age of 15. With her mother's blessing, Frazier began appearing at café society functions and was regularly photographed and featured in the society pages of magazines and newspapers at the age of 12. By the time she was a teenager, the press and public began taking a keen interest in wealthy members of high society who had not lost their fortunes due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Readers who were living through Great Depression were eager to read about the lives of the wealthy and glamorous "Poor Little Rich Girls" such as Frazier, Gloria Vanderbilt, Doris Duke, and Barbara Hutton were frequently written about and photographed. The press eventually began calling them "Glamour Girls". Frazier began to gain attention as a teenager after columnist Walter Winchell began writing about her. In 1936, two years before her society debut, society journalist Maury Henry Biddle Paul (known as Cholly Knickerbocker) wrote, "It may seem a bit early, but I – here and now – predict Brenda Frazier will be one of the belles – if not the Belle – of her season." Cholly Knickerbocker's prediction boosted Frazier's profile and her upcoming debutant ball became one of the most anticipated social events of 1938. Frazier was routinely photographed and popularized the famous "white-face" look; powdered white skin contrasted by red painted lips combined with perfectly coiffed dark hair (Frazier later said she suffered from neck problems because she rarely moved her head for fear of mussing her hair). During this time, Frazier developed anorexia and bulimia to keep her weight down. Both disorders would plague Frazier for the remainder of her life. In 1938, the year of her debut, Brenda Frazier was dubbed the #1 Glamour Girl. Later that year, in November 1938, she achieved the apex of fame—her face on the cover of Life magazine. The enclosed article inside gave hardly a mention of Frazier but from it she secured international fame. Frazier would go on to pose in ads for Woodbury soap and Studebaker cars (even though she could not drive) among others. Frazier's debutant party was held on December 27, 1938 at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City. The party was attended by 2,000 people including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. whom Frazier danced with. Despite being sick with the flu and having swollen feet, Frazier danced with Fairbanks, Jr. until 6:30 am. Frazier later recalled collapsing into bed from exhaustion in the early morning hours and not being able to remember any of the day that followed. Frazier's debutant party was a success and was featured on the front page of newspapers around the world. She was dubbed the "Debutante of the Century". In 1939, the word celebutante, a portmanteaux of the words "celebrity" and "débutante", was coined to describe Frazier. However, not all of the attention Frazier and other heiresses received was positive. Some media outlets and critics commented that Frazier was only famous for being rich and possessed no discernible talents. Frazier would later recall being booed at a Broadway nightclub one evening after she was introduced to the audience alongside other celebrities such as Ben Blue and Sonja Henie. Although she felt humiliated afterward, she acknowledged that her critics were right insofar as she was not a true celebrity, only a debutante. Frazier later admitted that she was never truly happy as a debutante. She said there were times when she did relish the attention she received, but that she had never felt loved by either of her parents or valued as anything more than a status symbol or a trophy. In the book Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier by Gioia Diliberto, Frazier's daughter Victoria Kelly remembered her mother saying, "I'm not a celebrity. I don't deserve all this. I haven't done anything at all. I'm just a debutante." Her family was equally dumbfounded. "I fear Brenda's being spoiled," said a great-aunt at the time of her great-niece's debut. "I bemoan all this spectacular notoriety." At the age of 21, Frazier inherited a total of $3,900,000 ($56.3 million today) from her father and her paternal grandmother, who died in 1936. Frazier married football star Shipwreck Kelly at her mother's apartment at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City on June 30, 1941. She gave birth to a daughter, Brenda Victoria, in 1945. Frazier and Kelly divorced in 1956. After several tempestuous relationships, including ones with cartoonist Peter Arno and Howard Hughes, Frazier and daughter moved to a small town near Cape Cod. On March 3, 1957, she married sales executive Robert Chatfield-Taylor. Frazier later told friends that she regretted marrying Chatfield-Taylor right away. They divorced in 1962. On March 16, 1961, Frazier attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. She was discovered and survived the attempt but would make thirty more suicide attempts throughout her life. In 1963, she wrote a piece for Life magazine – the same publication on whose cover she had appeared 25 years earlier (although the cover of that week's issue was given to the state funeral of the assassinated President Kennedy) – titled "My Debut – A Horror". In the article, she related that she was largely unhappy during her debutante year and, after years of therapy, she looked at photos of the event and noted "the mockery of faked smiles…and how many people there are in the world who were doomed like me by unfortunate childhoods to adult lives plagued by fears and inner emptiness." Frazier also detailed the many nervous breakdowns she suffered due to the negative attention she received and was also critical of her family for "being pushed into social functions." The article sparked renewed interest in Frazier and she appeared on several talk shows where she discussed her experiences as a "celebutante". In her later years, Frazier retreated from public life and divided her time between her homes in East Harwich and Beacon Hill. She became reclusive and developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol. A friend later stated that Frazier took "…pills to go to sleep and pills to wake up, pills for digestion and pills to go to the bathroom, and pills to be happy and pills to be sad, and pills to be." In 1966, photographer Diane Arbus took a now-famous picture of Frazier for Esquire magazine. The photo featured a gaunt Frazier heavily made up in her signature white face powder and red lipstick, propped up in bed with a cigarette in hand looking wearily toward the camera. During the final ten years of her life, Frazier suffered from ill health due to her long battles with anorexia and bulimia and was routinely hospitalized. On May 3, 1982, Franzier died of bone cancer at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston at the age of 60.
Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request
There is an open photo request for this memorial
Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request?
Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s).
Oops, something didn't work. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again.
Make sure that the file is a photo. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced.
All photos uploaded successfully, click on the <b>Done button</b> to see the photos in the gallery.
General photo guidelines:
Photos larger than 8.0 MB will be optimized and reduced.
Each contributor can upload a maximum of 5 photos for a memorial.
A memorial can have a maximum of 20 photos from all contributors.
The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional 10 photos (for a total of 30 on the memorial).
Include gps location with grave photos where possible.
No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments.)
There is no plot information for this memorial. Your photo request is more likely to be fulfilled if you contact the cemetery to get the plot information and include it with your request.
You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial.
Memorial Photos
This is a carousel with slides. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel.
Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried.
Show Map
If the memorial includes GPS coordinates, simply click 'Show Map' to view the gravesite location within the cemetery. If no GPS coordinates are available, you can contribute by adding them if you know the precise location.
Photos
For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab.
Photos Tab
All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer.
Flowers
Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button.
Family Members
Family members linked to this person will appear here.
Related searches
Use the links under See more… to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc.
Sponsor This Memorial
Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option.
Share
Share this memorial using social media sites or email.
Save to
Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print.
Edit or Suggest Edit
Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager.
Have Feedback
Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you.
You may not upload any more photos to this memorial
"Unsupported file type"
Uploading...
Waiting...
Success
Failed
This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded photos to this memorial
This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded photos to this memorial
Invalid File Type
Uploading 1 Photo
Uploading 2 Photos
1 Photo Uploaded
2 Photos Uploaded
Added by
GREAT NEWS! There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery.
Sorry! There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request.
Enter numeric value
Enter memorial Id
Year should not be greater than current year
Invalid memorial
Duplicate entry for memorial
You have chosen this person to be their own family member.
Reported!
This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates.
0% Complete
Saved
Sign in or Register
Sign in to Find a Grave
Sign-in to link to existing account
There is a problem with your email/password.
There is a problem with your email/password.
There is a problem with your email/password.
We encountered an unknown problem. Please wait a few minutes and try again. If the problem persists contact Find a Grave.
We’ve updated the security on the site. Please reset your password.
Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Please contact Find a Grave at [email protected] if you need help resetting your password.
This account has been disabled. If you have questions, please contact [email protected]
This account has been disabled. If you have questions, please contact [email protected]
Email not found
Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person.
Sign in to your existing Find a Grave account. You’ll only have to do this once—after your accounts are connected, you can sign in using your Ancestry sign in or your Find a Grave sign in.
We found an existing Find a Grave account associated with your email address. Sign in below with your Find a Grave credentials to link your Ancestry account. After your accounts are connected you can sign in using either account.
Please enter your email to sign in.
Please enter your password to sign in.
Please enter your email and password to sign in.
There is a problem with your email/password.
A system error has occurred. Please try again later.
A password reset email has been sent to EmailID. If you don't see an email, please check your spam folder.
We encountered an unknown problem. Please wait a few minutes and try again. If the problem persists contact Find a Grave.
Password Reset
Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code.
Registration Options
Welcome to Find a Grave
Create your free account by choosing an option below.
or
Ancestry account link
To create your account, Ancestry will share your name and email address with Find a Grave. To continue choose an option below.
or
If you already have a Find a Grave account, please sign in to link to Ancestry®.
New Member Registration
Email is mandatory
Email and Password are mandatory
This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Resend Activation Email
Your password is not strong enough
Invalid Email
You must agree to Terms and Conditions
Account already exists
Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox
Internal Server error occurred
If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map
You must select an email preference
We have sent you an activation email
Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters.
We just emailed an activation code to
Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account.
cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
Within 5 miles of your location.
Within 5 kilometers of your location.
0 cemeteries found in .
0 cemeteries found.
Add a cemetery to fulfill photo requests
You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below.
Search above to list available cemeteries.
Getting location…
Loading...
Loading...
No cemeteries found
Find a Grave Video Tutorials
Default Language
Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [email protected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Thanks for your help!
Preferred Language
We have set your language to based on information from your browser.