Gloria Vanderbilt, the intrepid heiress, artist and romantic who began her extraordinary life as the B次元官网网址減oor little rich girlB次元官网网址� of the Great Depression, survived family tragedy and multiple marriages and reigned during the 1970s and B次元官网网址�80s as a designer jeans pioneer, died Monday at the age of 95.
Vanderbilt was the great-great-granddaughter of financier Cornelius Vanderbilt and the mother of CNN newsman Anderson Cooper, who announced her death via a first-person obituary that aired on the network Monday morning.
Cooper said Vanderbilt died at home with friends and family at her side. She had been suffering from advanced stomach cancer, he noted.
B次元官网网址淕loria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms,B次元官网网址� Cooper said in a statement. B次元官网网址淪he was a painter, a writer, and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend. She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and theyB次元官网网址檇 tell you, she was the youngest person they knew, the coolest, and most modern.B次元官网网址�
Her life was chronicled in sensational headlines from her childhood through four marriages and three divorces. She married for the first time at 17, causing her aunt to disinherit her. Her husbands included Leopold Stokowski, the celebrated conductor, and Sidney Lumet, the award-winning movie and television director. In 1988, she witnessed the suicide of one of her four sons.
Tributes online came from celebrities and fans of her clothes alike. Alyssa Milano called her B次元官网网址渁n incredible woman,B次元官网网址� Dana Delany said she treasures one of VanderbiltB次元官网网址檚 paintings and model Carol Alt hailed her as a B次元官网网址渇ashion icon and innovator.B次元官网网址� And one Twitter user mourned by remembering the canary Vanderbilt jeans she wore in junior high school.
Vanderbilt was a talented painter and collagist who also acted on the stage (B次元官网网址淭he Time of Your LifeB次元官网网址� on Broadway in 1955) and television (B次元官网网址淧layhouse 90,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址漇tudio One,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址滽raft Theater,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址漊.S. Steel HourB次元官网网址�). She was a fabric designer who became an early enthusiast for designer denim. The dark-haired, tall and ultra-thin Vanderbilt partnered with Mohan Murjani, who introduced a $1 million advertising campaign in 1978 that turned the Gloria Vanderbilt brand with its signature white swan label into a sensation.
At its peak in 1980, it was generating over $200 million in sales. And decades later, famous-name designer jeans B次元官网网址� dressed up or down B次元官网网址� remain a womanB次元官网网址檚 wardrobe staple.
Vanderbilt wrote several books, including the 2004 chronicle of her love life: B次元官网网址淚t Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir,B次元官网网址� which drops such names as Errol Flynn, whom she dated as a teenager; Frank Sinatra, for whom she left Stokowski; Marlon Brando and Howard Hughes.
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She claimed her only happy marriage was to author Wyatt Cooper, which ended with his death in 1978 at age 50. Son Anderson Cooper called her memoir B次元官网网址渁 terrific book; itB次元官网网址檚 like an older B次元官网网址楽ex and the City.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e had many, many loves,B次元官网网址� Vanderbilt told The Associated Press in a 2004 interview. B次元官网网址淚 always feel that something wonderful is going to happen. And it always does.B次元官网网址�
Ula Ilnytzky, The Associated Press
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