Elizabeth Knight Peters
Born: June 20, 1876
Death: January 16, 1942
Place of Birth: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Location of Death: Las Vegas, Nevada
Burial Location: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Elizabeth was born into the affluent Knight family, Charles Stuart Knight and Alice Cheney Knight. Elizabeth was nicknamed ‘Bess’. She had two sisters who married well. Bess was courted by Frederic Peters, son of a local hardware company owner and eventually married.
Elizabeth had three children, Frederic Jr. in 1902, John Stuart in 1905 and Jane Alice in 1908. Elizabeth began to feel unease in her marriage and much of it derived from a workplace injury her husband suffered. He severly hurt his leg in an elevator accident which forced him to walk with a gimp and was also developing chronic headaches that were causing him noticeable pain and irritation.
Elizabeth was desperate and thanks to her family’s affluence, her mother suggested an extended holiday and decided to go to California with her children but the temporary holiday turned into a move in 1914 which was endorsed by her husband.
Elizabeth and her daughter Jane Alice, later known as Carole Lombard Gable were very close and shortly after moving to Los Angeles she became a Bahá’í and had a strong influence on Carole who also became a Bahá’í.
When her daughter volunteered to attend a bond rally in Indiana, Elizabeth went with her and it was Elizabeth’s first time to travel by air. Sadly, the plane crashed in the Nevada mountains and both Elizabeth and Carole died.
Editor’s Note:
Her ex-husband died at age 59 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her sons John Stuart died in 1956 and Frederic Jr. died in 1979
Source:
Swindell, Larry. Screwball The life of Carole Lombard. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1975
Images:
http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com
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