Her brief renown came too early to be remembered & appreciated by DLers.
From her 1996 NYT obituary:
[quote] Sloan Simpson, the beautiful young fashion model who married New York's handsome postwar Mayor, William O'Dwyer, divorced him after his term as Ambassador to Mexico and then became a darling of the jet set as the ruler of Acapulco society, died yesterday at her home in Dallas. She was 80.
[quote] Friends said the cause was lung cancer, a disease that had previously cost her a lung but not her devotion to cigarettes.
[quote] If ever there was a match made in tabloid heaven, it was surely the one between the former policeman, who had succeeded Fiorello H. La Guardia as Mayor of New York in 1946, and the well-bred Texas charmer who had come to the city as one of the 'long-stemmed beauties' of the John Powers modeling agency.
[quote] Miss Simpson, who had a brief early marriage that ended in divorce, was described by friends as a renegade Catholic. But the Mayor, who had studied for the priesthood in Spain, was too serious about his religion -- and too dependent on Roman Catholic voters -- to marry a divorced woman, and when Miss Simpson obtained an annulment, his friends knew something was up.
[quote] Even so, it was not until the Mayor had successfully won a second term in 1949 that the couple were married.
[quote] After the marriage, the new Mrs. O'Dwyer proceeded to supervise the first major decoration of Gracie Mansion.
[quote] Less than a year later, as mounting corruption investigations seemed to be closing in on the Mayor, he abruptly resigned and gratefully accepted appointment by President Truman as Ambassador to Mexico.
[quote] In Mexico City, the Ambassador and his wife won immense popularity, but strains soon appeared in the marriage, the result, Miss Simpson later said, of her husband's intense jealousy.
[quote] Whatever the cause, after the O'Dwyer stint as Ambassador ended with the Republican Presidential victory in 1952, Miss Simpson obtained a civil divorce in Mexico in 1953, then went off on a well-publicized sojourn to Spain, where she was photographed fighting bulls, repeatedly denied any other romantic interests and loyally insisted on her former husband's honesty. He died in 1964. ...
[quote] Miss Simpson, who told friends she would never marry unless she found a man with wealth and a title, had her share of titled suitors and romances with wealthy men, but never found one with both qualifications.