Edith Beale Research Paper

Edith Beale: The Color in Grey Gardens

With so much information to take in, I found it hard to know where to begin on the subject of Little Edie Beale, self-imposed prisoner of the mansion known as Grey Gardens. Largely infamous for her bizarre eccentricities being the reclusive cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, dare I use that term as her own mother once said, “’Eccentric’ is a lack of money.” I came to know her as an artist. More importantly, I discovered that she was not delusional or schizophrenic as many think to this day. She was a vastly intelligent woman who dared to live a life unconcerned with money and opinions in a time when such behaviors were considered improper and unfeminine. Therefore she was branded as insane.

Born on November 17, 1917, in New York City, Edith Bouvier-Beale was the youngest of three children for Phelan and Edith Ewing Beale. Phelan’s side of the family had amassed much wealth on Wall Street and in the legal arena. Because of their financial prosperity, Edie and her two brothers spent most of their childhood bouncing between Manhattan and the Hamptons. While Edith Jr.,
Naturally, she proved that false as she was finally able to make a life all her own. She held out on selling Grey Gardens for demolition until 1979 when Washington Post editors, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, purchased it for a little over $220,000 and restored it to its former glory. At long last the remaining Edith Beale returned to New York where she recaptured the exhilaration she once had as a young woman. She had a short run as a cabaret singer in Greenwich Village and took questions from the inquisitive audience at the end of her show. Some people felt that she was being exploited. Luckily, Edie wasn’t one of them. In her own words, “This is something I’ve been planning since I was 19. I don’t care what they say about me – I’m just going to have a