Jean de Saint Cyr
The two of them were in turn befriended by Saint Cyr, reportedly a hotel clerk who convinced both Swem and Redfield that he was affiliated with the entertainment business.
During this marriage, Saint Cyr affected fake non-American accents to suit whichever nationality he was pretending to be.
The Eugene J. de Sabla, Jr., Teahouse and Tea Garden portion of the estate is currently on the National Register of Historic Places for San Mateo County, California.
Heiress to the Eastman Kodak fortune, and the widow of Hawaii governor George R. Carter, she and Saint Cyr married in April 1939, and she filed for divorce in December 1939.
Having unsuccessfully tried his luck in a variety of jobs, including musical stage productions, he began promoting himself as a theatrical agent by the name of Jean Harold Edward de Saint Cyr.
Trenton, New Jersey resident Bob Swem (aka Robert von Schwemm) met Phoenix National Bank president Henry A. Redfield and his wife Caroline through mutual acquaintance Alfred Moore Livingstone.
[3] It is believed that Swem and Mrs. Redfield first met Saint Cyr when he worked as a hotel clerk at Alexandria Bay, New York.
[3] Lavishing her wealth upon both Saint Cyr and Swem severely drained her inheritance and necessitated the sale of the Redfield mansion on March 31, 1909.
Her first marriage was to affluent lawyer William Rhinelander Stewart Sr. Their daughter Anita became Princess Miguel of Braganza, Duchess of Viseu.
The marriage also produced a son, William Rhinelander Stewart Jr. After divorcing her first husband, she married James Henry "Silent" Smith in 1907, considered one of the world's wealthiest men.
[5] According to a friend of the Redfields, Colonel Alfred Montgomery Shook, Saint Cyr was distraught after the death of his wife Caroline.
However, Major E. Gray Pendleton, who introduced him to Annie Smith a month later, said Saint Cyr was eager to resume the party lifestyle.
Happening concurrently with the exposé of his real identity, was an ongoing court battle contesting the will of Caroline Redfield.
Upon Anne de Saint Cyr's March 3, 1925 death, they were living on an estate in San Mateo, California, that she had purchased in June 1919.
It included the Eugene J. de Sabla, Jr., Teahouse and Tea Garden that is currently on the National Register of Historic Places for the county.
[16] In 1922, Helen and her sister Gertrude made a $1,000,000 donation towards the building fund for the Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester in New York.
[17] In what the news reports called a "surprise ceremony", Saint Cyr and Carter were wed in New Orleans on April 26, 1939, attended only by her son, one of her daughters and her son-in-law.
He was buried next to his second wife Annie Armstrong Stewart Smith, in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park at San Mateo.
