DAY 70: Papa's Mistress

In another era, Fanny Ronalds would have been a pop star. 

A beautiful woman with a fine soprano voice that captivated all who heard her, she was born Mary Frances Carter in Boston, in 1839. By the age of twenty--when Jennie Jerome was six years old--Fanny had married New York socialite Pierre Lorillard Ronalds, a gentleman known as the Father of Coaching. Pierre liked to drive multiple horses under harness, like a Regency member of the Four-in-Hand club. If he contributed anything else to history, it appears to be unknown. 

Leonard Jerome in the 1860s

Fanny probably met Leonard Jerome through her husband; Leonard also loved coaching. And he adored sopranos--Jennie, for example, was named for Jennie Lind. At what point exactly Fanny became Leonard's mistress is unknown, but by the time Jennie was nine, Fanny was singing in the private Jerome opera house at charity events in support of the Union army, and had become firm friends with Leonard's wife Clara, so much so that Jennie remembered Fanny singing her to sleep in the Jerome nursery.

Interestingly, Fanny's affair with the Jerome girls lasted far longer than her affair with Leonard. She often visited Clara Jerome in Newport and Bathgate, and when Clara left with her daughters for France in 1867, Fanny accompanied them. The women became intimates of Emperor Napoleon III's court and friends of the Empress Eugenie, all of them escaping from Paris during the Prussian Invasion of 1870.

Fanny never divorced Pierre Ronalds, with whom she had four children; but she never associated with him again, either, after her emigration to Europe. A formal separation awarded her custody of the Ronalds children. When she moved to London in the mid-1870s, she became the companion of Arthur Sullivan--the composer half of Gilbert and Sullivan--until his death in 1900. Fanny was famed for her rendition of "The Lost Chord," one of Sullivan's most popular songs, written in memory of his late brother. This part of her life is portrayed in the film Topsy-Turvy, about Gilbert and Sullivan. 

Still photo of Eleanor David as Fanny Ronalds and Allan Corduner as Arthur Sullivan from the film, Topsy-Turvy, directed by Mike Leigh, 1999

Jennie remained friendly with Fanny Ronalds throughout their lives, recruiting her to serve as treasurer of the American women's committee Jennie formed, along with Minnie Paget, to finance the hospital ship RFA Maine during the Boer War. Having raised $150,000, the two women sailed with the Maine to Durban, South Africa, arriving in January 1900; among the wounded it served was Jennie's then twenty-year-old son, Jack, injured in the retreat from Ladysmith. 

Fanny and Jennie were both awarded the Order of the Royal Red Cross for their nursing efforts in 1902. 

For more images from THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN, visit the  Pinterest board behind the novel.