Frances Ford Seymour

Frances Ford Seymour (April 14, 1908 – April 14 1950) was a New York City socialite, the second wife of actor Henry Fonda and the mother of actors Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda. She suffered from mental illness and committed suicide by cutting her throat with a razor on her 42nd birthday while in the Craig House Sanitarium for Insane in Beacon, New York.

Born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, she was the daughter of Eugene Ford Seymour and Sophie Mildred Bower (Ontario, July 13, 1886 – Los Angeles, California, April 15, 1974). Among her first cousins was Mary Benjamin Rogers, the first wife of Standard Oil millionaire Henry Huttleston Rogers Jr.

On January 10, 1931 Frances Seymour married George Tuttle Brokaw, a millionaire and prominent New York City socialite whose previous marriage, to Clare Booth Luce, had ended in divorce. They had one child together, Frances (Pan) Brokaw. George Tuttle Brokaw died in 1936.

That year, Frances Ford Seymour was remarried on 16 September 1936 to actor Henry Fonda, at Christ Church in New York City. The couple had two children, Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda, and Peter Fonda.

References

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201334.html "Mothers, Lost and Found"] The Washington Post, Abigail Trafford, May 3 2005
* "Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir", by Peter Fonda
* "My Life So Far", by Jane Fonda
* [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=639982&page=3 Excerpt: 'My Life So Far'] ABC News, April 5 2005
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9795853 Find A Grave memorial]