Leonore Lemmon

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Leonore Lemmon (May 11, 1923 - December 30, 1989) - (Her body was found in her New York Apartment January 4, 1990, and time of death was calculated as most likely five days earlier. Her death certificate reads December 30, 1989.) An attractive, twice-divorced brunette, she was known in her early years as a party girl member of so-called Cafe Society. She was well-known and -liked in the nightclub world and was infamous as the only woman ever tossed out of the Stork Club for fist-fighting. Although her birth certificate reads "Leonore" and while she preferred that spelling, her name was frequently spelled "Lenore" in the press even during her lifetime.

She was the daughter of Arthur Lemmon, a very successful Broadway ticket broker. In 1941 she married Jacob L. ("Jakie") Webb, who was a great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. She left him after eight days but remained married long enough for the colorful Webb to marry someone else several years later and face bigamy charges. She later married and divorced musician Hamish Menzies.

In the late 1950s, Lemmon was the girlfriend and fiancée of TV Superman star George Reeves. The couple were to be married in Mexico on June 19, 1959, honeymoon in Spain and then go to Australia for public appearances as Superman. However, Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head three days before the scheduled wedding.[1] Lemmon attempted without success to claim a share of Reeves's estate. She returned to New York where she lived out the remainder of her life, her last years spent in alcohol dementia.

[edit] Trivia

• The L.L. initials remind some of the "L.L." characters associated with Superman, such as high-school girlfriend Lana Lang, arch-enemy Lex Luthor, and Clark Kent's newspaper colleague Lois Lane.

[edit] References

• Kashner, Sam and Schoenberger, Nancy Hollywood Kryptonite, St. Martin's, 1996, ISBN 0-312-14616-7
• "Was 'Superman' star George Reeves a suicide--or murder victim?"