Jean MacArthur | |
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 MacArthur in 1950 | |
| Born | Jean Marie Faircloth (1898-12-28)December 28, 1898 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2000(2000-01-22) (aged 101) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Arthur MacArthur IV |
| Parents |
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Jean Marie MacArthur (néeFaircloth; December 28, 1898 – January 22, 2000) was the second wife ofU.S. ArmyGeneral of the ArmyDouglas MacArthur.
Born Jean Marie Faircloth inNashville, Tennessee, she was the daughter of Edward C. Faircloth, a banker. After her parents divorced when she was eight, her mother took her to live with her grandparents inMurfreesboro. Her grandfather, a former captain in theConfederate army, instilled in her a love of uniforms. She attendedWard-Belmont College in Nashville, but graduated from Soule College in Murfreesboro. Jean and her father can be found later listed on a passenger manifest of theSS Belgenland, which arrived in thePort of Los Angeles on December 29, 1927, fromBalboa,Panama Canal Zone. When her father died, she inherited a large fortune and travelled extensively.[citation needed]
On a trip she intended to be toShanghai, in 1935, she met General MacArthur aboard theSS President Hoover, which was to stop first inManila, where MacArthur would disembark. Despite the age difference — she was nearly nineteen years younger than he — they began a permanent relationship in Manila, and married inNew York City on April 30, 1937, during Gen. MacArthur's trip home to build support for the defense of thePhilippines. This was to be Gen. MacArthur's last trip to the mainland United States for the next 14 years, when he was relieved from duty by PresidentTruman. His only other visits to U.S. soil between 1937 and 1951 were a 1944 strategy meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii with PresidentRoosevelt and AdmiralNimitz and a 1950 meeting with President Truman onWake Island.[citation needed]
Jean was MacArthur's second wife and he described her as his "constant friend, sweetheart, and devoted support." They had one son,Arthur MacArthur IV (1938–), and were married until Douglas' death in 1964.[1]
Jean MacArthur was with her husband when the Japanese attacked thePhilippines and went with him to the island ofCorregidor inManila's harbor. Even when the island was attacked, she refused to leave her husband. Only when President Rooseveltordered the MacArthurs to leave they went toAustralia.[citation needed]
After her husband's death she helped with theMetropolitan Opera and other charities. In her later years, she often gave speeches on her late husband's military career. PresidentRonald Reagan awarded her theMedal of Freedom in 1988 and the Philippine government gave her its Legion of Merit in 1993.[2][3]
Mrs. MacArthur died of natural causes in Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan at age 101.[1] She is entombed with her husband in the rotunda of theMacArthur Memorial inNorfolk, Virginia, the hometown of Gen. MacArthur's mother.
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