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Barbara Woolworth Hutton (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American debutante/socialite, heiress and philanthropist. She was dubbed the "Poor Little Rich Girl", first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930, amid the Great Depression, and later due to a notoriously troubled private life. Heiress to the retail tycoon Frank Winfield Woolworth, Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world. She endured a childhood marked by the early loss of her mother at age five and the neglect of her father, setting the stage for a life of difficulty forming relationships. Seven times married, all of which ended in divorce, she acquired grand foreign titles but was maliciously treated and often exploited by several of her husbands. While publicly she was much envied for her possessions, her beauty and her apparent life of leisure, privately she remained deeply insecure, often taking refuge in drink, drugs, and playboys. Hutton bore one child, Lance Reventlow, with her second husband, but was an indifferent and insecure parent and the subsequent divorce ended in a bitter custody battle. She later developed anorexia nervosa and perhaps therefore prevented further childbirth. Her son died in a plane crash in 1972 at the age of 36, leaving her devastated. She lived another seven years, dying of a heart attack at age 66. At her death, the formerly wealthy Hutton was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of exploitation, as well as her compulsive generosity and spendthrift ways. ==Early life== Born in New York City, Barbara Hutton was the only child of Edna Woolworth (1883–1917), a daughter of Frank W. Woolworth, the founder of the successful Woolworth five-and-dime stores. Barbara's father was Franklyn Laws Hutton (1877–1940), a wealthy co-founder of E. F. Hutton & Company (owned by Franklyn's brother Edward Francis Hutton), a respected New York investment banking and stock brokerage firm. She was a niece by marriage of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was for a time (1920–1935) married to E.F. Hutton; thus their daughter, actress-heiress Dina Merrill (born Nedenia Hutton), was a first cousin to Barbara Hutton. Dina Merrill related on A&E's ''Biography of the Woolworths'', that for a time Barbara lived with them following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father.〔Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 17〕 Edna Hutton reportedly died from suffocation due to mastoiditis, but rumor persists that she committed suicide by poison in despair over her husband's philandering,〔Plunkett-Powell, Karen; Remembering Woolworth's: A Nostalgic History of the World's Most Famous Five-and-Dime, MacMillan, p. 131.〕 especially as the coroner decided that no autopsy was necessary.〔Pitrone, Jean Maddern; F.W. Woolworth and the American Five and Dime: A Social History, McFarland, p.59〕 Five year old Barbara discovered her mother's body.〔Gressor, Megan & Cook, Kerry (2005). (''An Affair to Remember: The Greatest Love Stories of All Time'' ), p. 260. Fair Winds Press.〕 After her mother's death, she lived with various relatives, and was raised by a governess. Hutton attended Miss Hewitt's Classes, now The Hewitt School in New York's Lenox Hill neighborhood and Miss Porter's School for Girls in Farmington, Connecticut. She became an introverted child who had limited interaction with other children of her own age. Her closest friend and only confidante was her cousin Jimmy Donahue, the son of her mother's sister.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jane Bowles, Libby Holman Reynolds and Barbara Hutton )〕 Jimmy Donahue inherited a portion of the Woolworth estate with Barbara and also grew up to have notorious, and public, drug, alcohol and relationship problems. In 1924, Barbara Hutton's grandmother Jennie (Creighton) Woolworth died, leaving $26.1 million to Barbara in a trust fund. Another $2.1 million in stock from Edna's inheritance was placed in a separate trust both of which were administered by Franklyn Hutton. By the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, her father had increased the amount to about $42 million (Over $2 billion in ), not including the additional $8 million from her mother's estate, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.〔Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story〕 In accordance with New York's high society traditions, Barbara Hutton was given a lavish débutante ball in 1930 on her 18th birthday, where guests from the Astor and Rockefeller families, amongst other elites, were entertained by stars such as Rudy Vallee and Maurice Chevalier. The ball cost $60,000 ($,000 in ), a veritable fortune in the days of the depression. Public criticism was so severe that she was sent on a tour of Europe to escape the onslaught of the press.〔New York Social Diary, 1933〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barbara Hutton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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