Greer Garson Fogelson made a career of portraying well-bred, dignified, and regal heroines. Daughter of a businessman from the Orkney Islands north of Scotland, she could trace her lineage back to the Norse chieftain Eric the Red and the Scottish brigand Rob Roy MacGregor.
She was the toast of London's West End before Louis B. Mayer spotted her and persuaded her to come to Hollywood. As reported in the The Dallas Morning News in an article by Jane Sumner, playwrights Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw were horrified by her decision to "work with magic lanterns." But Miss Garson revealed, about 50 years later, that "there's a certain charm about money."
Her first year in Hollywood was unhappy, before being cast in the small role of Robert Donat's wife in Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939). But this film brought her first of 6 Oscar nominations, and launched her career as a genteel actress.
Mrs. Miniver proved to the be the pinnacle of Miss Garson's movie career. This sentimental film about a strong, noble British mother during World War II won six Oscars, including a best actress Oscar for Miss Garson. It also helped garner American support for the British war effort. Winston Churchill called it "propaganda worth a hundred battleships" in a letter to Louis B. Mayer.
Her first two marriages, to British government attaché Edward Alec Abbott Snelson and actor Richard Ney, ended in divorce. In 1949, Miss Garson married oilman-rancher E.E. "Buddy" Fogelson. In a 1993 interview for the BBC, Mrs. Fogelson reported that her fondest memory was "meeting Buddy," and her proudest moment was "marrying Buddy." After the marriage, the Fogelsons enjoyed residences in Beverly Hills, Palm Desert, New Mexico and Dallas.
Mr. & Mrs. Fogelson's generosity extended to many institutions, primarily in Dallas and New Mexico, the location of their historic Forked Lightning Ranch. After Mr. Fogelson's death in 1987, Mrs. Fogelson donated the ranch to the National Park Service as part of the Pecos National Monument. Their Dallas philanthropies inclued the $10 million theater complex at Southern Methodist University, and $1.5 million endowed chair at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the Fogelson Pavilion at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
The grace and elegance with which Greer Garson Fogelson lived her life will be remembered by all whose lives she touched. The Fogelson's legacy will continue through the benevolence of the Fogelson Foundation.
Property from the Estate of
GREER GARSON FOGELSON
Sold to Benefit
THE E.E. FOGELSON AND GREER GARSON FOGELSON CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
A DIAMOND COLLET CHAIN
Details
A DIAMOND COLLET CHAIN
Set with sixty-one old mine-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum, circa 1910--15½ ins. long
Set with sixty-one old mine-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum, circa 1910--15½ ins. long