Alice Hoffman has left us many
documents, including a 200+ page unpublished autobiography, stacks of ledgers
and budgets, shopping lists, remodeling blueprints, inventories of her
possessions, letters, legal papers and, finally, a Last Will and Testament.[i] Unlike most modern-day wills, Alice’s is more typical of an earlier age when
writing a will was a final opportunity to right perceived wrongs. Hers went
through several revisions.
It seems
Alice began writing her final will, the version that has been preserved by her
attorney Frank Wooten of Greenville, North Carolina, about five years before
her death. It’s dated February 21, 1948. She was 86
years old.
The will
has 15 numbered subsections and six codicils, revisions that took place over a
three-year period. The last one is dated June 6, 1951, less than two years before her death.
The very
first two sentences of the first section reveal her state of mind, her obsessive
sense that she has been a victim of injustice. They also suggest her financial
state of indebtedness. She says: “I hereby revoke all former wills by me made
and direct the payment of my just debts and funeral expenses. I use the word
just advisedly, for none of the debts which have been collected through
litigation have been owed by me.”
The second
section reveals three other obsessions—returning to France, reclaiming her
Chateau des Landes property in Suresnes and identifying herself with those who
fought in France during World War I. It had been over 15 years since Alice had
been in France, but she imagines the possibility that she might be buried there
in the American Veterans Cemetery. She was, of course, not a veteran.
The view of Paris from the Chapel at the American Cemetery in Suresnes, the Eiffel Tower to the right in background. Alice's Suresnes property was near this cemetery. [ii]
This
delusional train of thought continues. She cannot seem to control herself from
recounting all the events that led to the French government’s acquisition of her
property. The story began when the leftist Front
Populaire governed France and claimed the French version of eminent domain
to create a public park on her estate in Suresnes—and a beautiful location it was.
She says that the Chateau des Landes’ “park contained four hectares, as well as
an uninterrupted view of the Bois de Boulogne, Montmartre, the Eiffel Tower.” Her
legal battle over these four hectares (approximately ten acres) and an additional adjoining one hectare
continued with three subsequent French governments—the right-wing, pro-German
Vichy Government; the post-war French Provisional Government; and, finally, the
Fourth Republic, which was in power at the time she was writing this will. Actually,
all evidence suggests the legal battle had been lost long before.
Alice,
according to her own financial accounts, accepted a settlement payment for about
$80,000 for property she bought for about $20,000. She, of course, remodeled at a cost of about $20,000, but claims that the estate was worth $160,000.
She has no chance of reclaiming her Suresnes property. That fact does not,
however, keep her from willing that one of her French lawyers Maitre J.J.
Retouret build a house for his family on the land and that “Eugene
Millington-Drake and his sister,” Jessie, whom she identifies as “my very dear
friends,” inherit the Chateau des Landes estate.
With her
mind still very much in France, she begins to think about all the personal
property she left behind, some dating back to the house she rented for 27 years
on the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne. She thinks of her precious jewelry, some
diamond pieces, a “cabachon emerald pendant, my wedding present from Ellis, and
various other precious family stones”; her silver, stored in “an old sea
captain’s chest”; her wine from various cellars around Paris; furniture stored
in a Paris garage, which she say “is stuffed to bursting.”
This modern photo by Henry Lawford suggests the neighborhood of the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne Alice is imagining as she writes this part of her will. [iii]
But, again this is property she no longer has. She used
part of the $80,000 she received for her Suresnes property to pay Boris
Lepkowski to take her Bois de Boulogne treasures out of the Credit Municipal in
Paris and secure them at his Paris home. Fearing a German invasion, he left
Paris and brought some of her jewels with him to Monte Carlo. She also had paid
him to remove wine from her wine cellar and store it in his Paris cellar. All she
has from him are receipts—no real assets to give to heirs.
As for
larger furnishings Alice was paying hefty storage fees over a period of many
years in New York and Paris, but as her debts grew and she was unable to
continue paying fees, storage facilities sold her possessions to recoup losses.
Alice Hoffman in her Bogue
Banks bedroom, the portrait of her goddaughter Mrs. Frank Stephens above her
bed. [iv]
More realistically, in the fourth section, she wills the portrait above her
bed of Mrs. Frank Stephens to the artist and gives Mrs. Stephens’ copy of Daily Strength for Daily Needs, which Alice seems to rely on heavily, to the Stephens’ daughter-in-law.
In the
fifth through the ninth sections, she turns to people she feels she owes a debt
of gratitude. Most seem to be people who have over the years been in her employ,
and some she is still counting on to assist her. These include her former
secretary Lillian Wilson; Gabrielle Germaine Brard, her current companion, whom she refers to as her “Stand In”; Lawrence and Lela Sadler as long as they continue in her service; a
banker and financial advisor Elbert J. Knowles; employee Ira Guthrie as long as
he remains in her service; and four others who may also be former employees—Miss
G. Kaye and Nina Marinel of Washington, DC; Miss J. N. Norse of New York City;
and Augusta Girardin in France. She wills them all small amounts, except for
Gabrielle, who gets a more sizeable allotment and some optional payout methods.
Gabrielle Germaine Brard, From photo on wall at Crab Shack in Salter Path
In section
eleven, she lists what she wants to give to two charities: $2,000 to the
Morehead City Hospital for the primary purpose of treating children with
infantile paralysis and $500 to Father Flanagan’s Boys Home.
She wills
to her niece, Eleanor Butler Roosevelt, “the residue and remainder of my
property, both real and personal, of every kind and wherever situated.” She
includes her jewels, silverware, paintings and antiques.
She also
gives Eleanor authority to distribute these assets as she sees fit, especially
among her children and appoints her executrix. In the second codicil, she
changes that appointment: “I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint by
grand-nephew, Theodore Roosevelt, III, and my attorney and friend, Frank M.
Wooten, Jr., as executors….” She explains the change as follows: “…because my
niece, Eleanor Butler Roosevelt is a resident of the State of New York and
because of the distance from North Carolina, it would be an undue strain upon
her health and would require a great deal of her time, which is already used to
capacity in many worthwhile projects in New York….” The explanation may also suggest
Eleanor’s feelings toward her aunt.
The
remainder of Alice’s will, including the remaining five codicils, reveals her
final obsession—her nagging sense that she has little money and few assets to
distribute to people she would like to be able to acknowledge or thank for
taking care of her.
She says in
the first codicil, “I have provided for my great niece and nephews, the
children of Eleanor Roosevelt, by a trust which is held by the Wachovia Bank
& Trust Company. It is my will and desire that they have this as is
provided in the trust agreement dated February 21, 1948. The source of the
principal of this trust is the estate of my grandfather, Theron R. Butler, and
I have provided in the said trust that it continue as long as permitted by law.
This provision is made in the belief that the principal of my grandfather’s
estate should continue intact as long as possible.”
Even though
she knows the trust has to remain intact, she also knows she has debts and
taxes to pay. Sadly, we see her struggling with these financial realities as
she reassesses how much she can give various people.
Post Author: Phyllis Makuck
To contact the author or the History Committee
[i]
Alice Hoffman’s Papers. East Carolina University Joyner Library Special
Collections.
I also thank Barbara Milhaven for providing a copy of
the “Last Will and Testament of Alice Hoffman” and for providing a copy of Alice as an old woman in bed.
[ii] http://tyntyn50.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/img_6320.jpg
Avenue-Foch-Paris- Formerly Avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Herry Lawford from London,
UK - Paris
[iv] Barbara Milhaven, "Alice the Queen," The Shoreline, 2009.
[iv] Barbara Milhaven, "Alice the Queen," The Shoreline, 2009.