[3][4] Known as Big Edie,[5] she was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and socialite Princess Lee Radziwill.

[1] In 1923, Phelan Beale purchased the Grey Gardens mansion in the Georgica neighborhood of East Hampton, a block from the Atlantic Ocean.

[9] In July 1952, Beale's daughter Edith (known as "Little Edie")[5] returned after five years in Manhattan to live permanently at Grey Gardens.

[10] In October 1971, police raided Grey Gardens and found the house "full of litter, rife with the odor of cats and in violation of various local ordinances".

The Suffolk County, New York, Board of Health prepared to evict Beale and "Little Edie" due to the unsafe condition of the property.

[1] Beale's niece, Lee Radziwill, hired documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles in 1972 to work on a film about the Bouvier family.

Her body is buried in the Bouvier family plot at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton.

The documentary was adapted as a 2006 musical of the same name, including the characters Lee and Jackie Bouvier appearing as visiting children in retrospect.