Frances Ford Seymour
Frances Ford Seymour (
1908-
14 April 1950) was a
New York City socialite, perhaps most famous as the second wife of actor
Henry Fonda and the mother of actors
Jane Fonda and
Peter Fonda. She suffered from
mental illness and committed suicide in
1950 while in a
sanitarium, when she was forty-two.
She was the daughter of Eugene Ford Seymour and Sophie Mildred Bower. On
January 10,
1931 she married
George Tuttle Brokaw, a millionaire and prominent
New York City socialite whose previous marriage, to
Clare Booth Luce, had ended in divorce.
They had one child together, Frances Brokaw.
George Tuttle Brokaw died in
1936 leaving Frances Ford Seymour widowed at the age of 28.
That year, Frances Ford Brokaw was remarried (
16 September 1936), to actor
Henry Fonda, at Christ Church in New York City. The couple had two children,
Jane Seymour Fonda, and
Peter Fonda.
