Eleanor Post Hutton

Eleanor Post Hutton (née Close; December 3, 1909 – November 27, 2006) was an American heiress and socialite. Following her parents' divorce, her mother remarried, to Edward Francis Hutton.

Biography

Early life

She was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the second daughter of heiress, socialite and company founder Marjorie Merriweather Post and investment banker Edward Bennett Close. She was the granddaughter of C. W. Post whose Postum Cereal Company was the predecessor of the General Foods Corporation. She was a half-sister to Dina Merrill (née Nedenia Hutton), Marjorie Post's third and last child.

Marriages

In 1930 she eloped with the playwright and director Preston Sturges. In 1932 she sought an annulment on the grounds that he was not legally divorced from his first wife when they eloped. Sturges' screenplay for The Power and the Glory (1933 film) was loosely based on her stories about her grandfather C. W. Post.

In 1934 she married her third husband, George Curtis Rand. Designs for their apartment by Donald Deskey Associates are held in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. She was divorced from George C. Rand and married in 1942 the writer Hans Habe. They divorced in 1946. Eleanor's final husband was the conductor Leon Eugene Barzin; the couple lived in Switzerland. Leon Barzin predeceased his wife in 1999.

Unlike her sister, Adelaide, Eleanor was not as involved in the operation of the Marjorie Merriwether Post Foundation due to her residency in Europe.

Death

Eleanor Close Hutton Barzin died in Paris on November 27, 2006 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York. She was survived by her son Antal Miklas Post de Bekessy, her granddaughter Laetitia Vere as well as her half sister actress Dina Merrill and two half brothers Edward B. Close, Jr., and William B. Close.