John Jacob Astor VI

John Jacob Astor VI (August 14, 1912 - June 26, 1992) was a member of the Astor family.

Biography

He was the posthumous son of John Jacob Astor IV (1864-1912) and Madeleine Talmadge Force (1893-1940). His father died when the RMS "Titanic" sank on April 15, 1912. His parents had married on September 9, 1911 and were returning home aboard the ship after about three months honeymooning in Egypt and Europe. Madeleine Astor was five months pregnant when her husband put her in one of Titanic's lifeboats and she was rescued eight hours after her husband went down with the ship.

Under the terms of her husband's will, Madeleine Astor received very little from an estate estimated to be as much as $100 million. Provided she did not remarry, nineteen-year-old Madeleine Astor received the annual investment income from a five-million-dollar trust fund and the use of their homes on Fifth Avenue in New York City and in Newport, Rhode Island. Because they were on their way home, and Mrs. Astor had conceived during their honeymoon abroad, no provision for the unborn child was made in his already set will. However, their son received three million dollars at the age of maturity, presumably pursuant to statutory laws making provision for pretermitted children. The rest of his estate was left to Vincent Astor, his son by his first wife.

John Jacob Astor VI graduated from St. George's School in Newport, following which he married Ellen Tuck French in 1934 with whom he had one son but they were divorced in 1943. One year after their divorce he married Gertrude Gretsch. The couple had a daughter but their marriage also ended in divorce in 1954. He married a third time to Sue Sandford in 1954 who predeceased him.

John Jacob Astor VI died in Miami Beach, Florida at the age of 79. His body was returned to New York for burial with his parents in the Trinity Church Cemetery.

Family

Children
# Mary Jacqueline Astor (Drexel) (b. 1947); William Backhouse Astor III (b. 1935, m. Charlotte Fisk)

Grandchildren:
# Astor Drexel; William Backhouse Astor IV; Gregory Todd Astor

Name confusion

"Note:" Standard genealogies of the Astor family confuse this man John Jacob Astor VI, with John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever (born 1886) John Jacob Astor V. Sir John Jacob Astor (born 1918), youngest brother of David Astor, is John Jacob Astor VII, and the 3rd Baron Astor of Hever is John Jacob Astor VIII.

References in popular culture

Astor's name is shown on one of the page buttons on an apartment building in Mel Brooks' 2005 movie musical "The Producers".

References