Jolie Gabor - Biography

Jolie Gabor de Szigethy (died April 1, 1997) was best known as "Mama Jolie", the mother of actresses/socialites Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor.

Born Janszieka Kende in Budapest on September 29, and nicknamed "Jansci" or "Jancsi", she claimed to have been born in 1900, although other sources have cited 1894 or 1896. According to researcher Piet Hein Honig, Jolie's Budapest birth certificate indicates that she was actually born in 1896 to a Jewish family. Her obituary in the New York Times gave a birth year of 1900.

Her mother, Francesca Kende, owned the Diamond House, a fashionable jewelry business with branches all over Europe. She married her first husband, Vilmos Gábor in 1914; he died in 1939. She reportedly arrived nearly penniless in the United States, via Switzerland and Portugal, on December 31, 1945.

She was a cousin of Annette Tillemann Lantos, wife of Hungarian-American congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos.

What's My Line?

In 1957, she made an appearance as a mystery guest on the show What's My Line?. Her line in 1957 was that she owned and operated a jewelry store.

Marriages

She was married three times:

• Vilmos Gábor, Hungarian soldier; father of her three daughters (1914 – 1939; his death)
• Peter Howard Christman (1947 – 1948; marriage dissolved)
• Count Edmund "Odon" de Szigethy (July 12, 1912 – September 30, 1989), Hungarian noble; married from March 3, 1957 until his death in 1989

Death

Jolie was preceded in death by her youngest daughter, Eva, although she reportedly was never informed of Eva's death. She died less than two years later, in Palm Springs, California on April 1, 1997. Two months after Jolie's death, her eldest daughter, Magda, died. She had one grandchild, Zsa Zsa's daughter, Francesca Hilton.

Jolie Gabor de Szigethy is buried in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Bibliography

• Jolie Gabor, by Jolie Gabor as told to Cindy Adams, Mason Charter, 1975; ISBN 0-884-05125-0, ISBN 978-0884051251
• Jolie Gabor's Family Cookbook, by Jolie Gabor, with Ted & Jean Kaufman, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1962.
• Gaborabilia, by Anthony Turtu and Donald F. Reuter, Three Rivers Press, 2001; ISBN 0-609-80759-5

External links

• Gabor family website