Evangeline Brewster (Johnson) Merrill (1897-1990)
Mrs Evangeline Brewster (Johnson) Stokowski, Zalstem-Zalessky, Merrill
She was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her brother, Gen. Robert Wood Johnson, transformed the family pharmaceutical business - Johnson & Johnson - founded by their father and uncles into the diversified healthcare company it is today. She was educated at Miss Spence's School in Manhattan and during World War I she rose to become a Lieutenant in New York's Red Cross Ambulance Corps, and was awarded by President Woodrow Wilson. In the 1920s, she made a name for herself in Palm Beach after the city banned "abbreviated" women's bathing suits being worn in public. She campaigned vigorously against the ruling which included dropping leaflets over the beach from the plane she had recently learned to fly. She was a collector of priceless Kandinskys, Klees and Miròs, and was made a Fellow in Perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and, among other museums, she was a patron of the Peabody Museum at Yale University. She had also been a Chairwoman of the Speaker's Bureau of the League of Nations.
She was married three times. In 1926, she became the second wife of the world-renowned Anglo-American conductor Leopold Stowkowski. After their divorce in 1938 he married Gloria Vanderbilt. Two months later, she was married in Phoenix, Arizona, to the Russian 'Prince' Alexis Zalstem-Zalessky - prior to him there is no record of any Prince with that name and according to Jerry Oppenheimer's book Crazy Rich, he "was better known in certain circles as basically a charming gigolo". He died in 1965 and in 1977 she married a good-looking Irishman with a chequered and equally unremarkable past, Charles Merrill. He was not related to the Merrill-Lynch family as he first claimed, and was not only over thirty years younger than Evangeline, he was also very gay. From the 1980s, her final days were spent at Hendersonville in rural North Carolina, in a squalid house that Charles called "World's Edge Apple Organic Farm." It was unkempt both inside and out, overrun by roosting chickens, cats, and dogs, all left to their own devices. Evangeline was survived by two daughters (Luba Rhodes and Sadja Greenwood) both by her first marriage.
She was married three times. In 1926, she became the second wife of the world-renowned Anglo-American conductor Leopold Stowkowski. After their divorce in 1938 he married Gloria Vanderbilt. Two months later, she was married in Phoenix, Arizona, to the Russian 'Prince' Alexis Zalstem-Zalessky - prior to him there is no record of any Prince with that name and according to Jerry Oppenheimer's book Crazy Rich, he "was better known in certain circles as basically a charming gigolo". He died in 1965 and in 1977 she married a good-looking Irishman with a chequered and equally unremarkable past, Charles Merrill. He was not related to the Merrill-Lynch family as he first claimed, and was not only over thirty years younger than Evangeline, he was also very gay. From the 1980s, her final days were spent at Hendersonville in rural North Carolina, in a squalid house that Charles called "World's Edge Apple Organic Farm." It was unkempt both inside and out, overrun by roosting chickens, cats, and dogs, all left to their own devices. Evangeline was survived by two daughters (Luba Rhodes and Sadja Greenwood) both by her first marriage.
