James H. R. Cromwell


James Henry Roberts Cromwell was an American diplomat, candidate for the United States Senate, author, and one-time husband of Doris Duke, "the richest girl in the world".

Life and career

He was born on June 4, 1896 in Manhattan, the son of Eva Roberts and Oliver Eaton Cromwell. His sister Louise Cromwell Brooks was the first wife of Douglas MacArthur and the third wife of Lionel Atwill. He grew up in Philadelphia after his widowed mother married Edward T. Stotesbury in 1912 and moved there.
Cromwell's first wife was automotive company heiress Delphine Ione Dodge, the only daughter of Horace Dodge of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, one of the two co-founders of the Dodge Motor Company. They had one daughter, Christine Cromwell, in 1922 and divorced in 1928.
In 1935, Cromwell married 22-year-old Doris Duke. Both supported Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. He published books to present his economic ideas and advocated tighter control of the Federal Reserve. In 1940, for 142 days, he was the United States Ambassador to Canada. He resigned to enter the election for U.S. Senator from New Jersey, a race he lost. After bitter and protracted legal proceedings Cromwell and Duke divorced in 1948.
Cromwell was married to his third wife, Maxine MacFetridge, from April 24, 1948, until her death in 1968. Their daughter, Maxine Hope Cromwell, was born in New York on November 17, 1948. Germaine Benjamin was Cromwell's fourth and last wife, from 1971 until her death in 1987.
Cromwell died in the Marin Terrace retirement home in Mill Valley, California, at the age of 93.

Books by Cromwell