2023

Posted on August 26, 2020

Paige’s grandmother Virginia Young LaRocca died in August of 1976 in the Studio City Convalescent Hospital located at 11429 Ventura Blvd.

She was a 1^st Reader for the Church of Christ Science for 35 years according to her death certificate.

Virginia was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the ocean near the Santa Monica shoreline, just like granddaughter Paige’s ashes two years previous.

Josephine’s daughter, former Warner Brothers starlet Mary Jane Harker Lanier died in 1986 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her husband Samuel Lefkovitz Lanier remarried and lived with his second wife for over 10 years until his death in 2007 at age 88, also in Florida. The oldest child of Jane and Samuel Lanier, Samuel Harker Lanier, passed away in 2018; he was only in his 60s. A Florida lawyer, he had been disbarred in St. Augustine on a cocaine related arrest only a few years before.

Virginia’s sister and former Vaudeville performing and travelling partner, Josephine Young Harker, Paige Young’s great aunt, died in June of 1979 in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Public record.

Donna Virginia LaRocca Holroyd, had moved sometime in the late 60s, with mother Virginia? (had she had her stroke?) and husband Jack, to the Simi Valley. Were they divorced already? Possibly as it is looking like Jack Holroyd married and divorced twice after Donna. Still need to confirm.

By 1970, Donna was the head supervisor for the Ocean View Children’s Center (5201 Squires Dr.) in Port Hueneme “for low income and welfare families…. so that the mothers (of the Valley Village neighborhood) could work or go to school.” Oxford News 1970.

Article below mentions that Donna received a degree from UCLA in Early Childhood Education.

Oxford Press Courier March 21, 1971. Her daughter Paige was probably living in Westwood or Trancas Beach at this time.

By the time of her daughter Paige’s suicide in April of 1974, Donna and Jack Holroyd were divorced and Donna was living with her mother Virginia back in Sherman Oaks, at the lovely Chase Knolls Apartment Community on Huston St.

Donna’s Chase Knolls address is on Paige’s death certificate as her next of kin.

This address is also on Virginia LaRocca‘s death cert. in 1976. Donna is listed as her mother’s next of kin. (See Above)

In 1980 this address appears on Donna’s own death certificate.

**Donna Holroyd is divorced and living at the Chase Knolls Apartment Community in Sherman Oaks according to this death cert.**

Donna dies of a “hypertensive arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” in her Chase Knolls apartment at age 59 years. Her and Jack’s son Wesley would have been about 20 years.

Donna outlives her mother by 4 years, and her daughter by 6.

**Chase Knolls Apartments Sherman Oaks.** **Not Donna’s apartment which is located behind the locked gate.**

Oldest daughter and Paige’s sister Constance Smashey is listed on Donna Holroyd’s death certificate as next of kin with a Simi Valley address.

Constance and Steve Smashey divorced and Connie would move to the Palm Desert area in the 1980s. She now lives in Banning, California.

She turned down my request to ask her a few questions about her sister Paige and their family.

Wesley Scott Holroyd died of alcoholism in 2014 at age 53. He was living in the San Fernando Valley where he spent most of his life.

Paige’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell and his wife Pat, moved to Oregon in the 1970s after he retired from Douglas Air. They lived there until their deaths around 2010.

Bob Cotterell’s obituary is no longer online. When it was, there was no mention of his daughters by Donna LaRocca: Diana/Paige and Constance.

It appears that Connie has reunited with her half siblings.

Richard Sample told me that Paige drove him to meet her sister one time only. and that he “did not get any impression” they were close.

Paige did not disclose her personal history or childhood, to anyone I’ve talked with who knew her.

Paige’s ex-husband Mark Frederick Segal married a woman named Denise in 1974 and a few years later they had a son: Ivan Mark Segal.

1985/86 Mark F. Segal stayed in the car business:

Segal sold his home on Crisp Canyon Ave. to Rex Ramsey and later bought it back from him. He sold it again and moved to Portland in the late 80s? He died there on October 16, 2012.

4133 Crisp Canyon Ave. was razed and replaced with a really horrible McMansion.

His son Ivan Segal lives in Portland and Scottsdale.

Desmond Guinness married Penelope Cuthbertson in 1984.

View of Irish author and conservationist Desmond Guinness (1931 – 2020) as he sits in an armchair at his home, Leixlip Castle, Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland, 1968. (Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images)

She is his cousin according to “International Set” gossip writer Suzy Knickerbocker back in 1973. They were not couple at that time.

Desmond continued fundraising for his Irish Georgian Society well into old age. He died on August 20, 2020. I have read Desmond had some degree of dementia.

Ex-wife Mariga and co-founder of the IGS had died decades earlier.

There are numerous obituaries online for Hon. Desmond Guinness.

Desmond’s niece is fashion icon and socialite Daphne Guinness. His granddaughter is popular fashion model Jasmine Guinness.

How and where Desmond became acquainted with Paige Young is a mystery. Possibly was through John and CiCi Huston in Ireland. Celeste to me denied knowing the two were acquainted.

Desmond on his own was well connected in Los Angeles and Southern California. He had a receptive audience in the area.

In the late 1970s……..

Paige’s divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson went from “Beverly Hills and LA famous” with some degree of national fame, to internationally famous, when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in her lawsuit against live-in lover of 6 years, actor Lee Marvin. I

Mitchelson introduced the term and concept of “palimony” into the courts.

Commonly known as Marvin vs. Marvin, the case received major publicity in the mass-media of the time. It’s something I personally remember as a young teenager. I call it “People magazine” famous.

I didn’t learn the back story in detail until I researched this project. I am condensing the details for this website.

Michelle Triola Marvin was a singer in Hollywood. She felt she was owed part of Lee Marvin’s $3.2 million fortune, as she had given up her own career, per his demand, to become his live-in lover, helpmate, career advisor, and even helped to raise his 4 children from first wife Betty.

Triola said Lee Marvin had promised her life-long financial support. Triola-Marvin was abruptly dumped when Lee Marvin suddenly married his high school sweetheart Pamela Feeney in 1970. Marvin kicked Triola-Marvin out of their Malibu home and cut her off financially.

Because Michelle Triola Marvin was not legally married to Lee Marvin, she had no legal standing to demand any financial compensation.

Mitchelson saw an opportunity in California’s newly enacted “no-fault” divorce laws.

Mitchelson filed a breach-of-contract suit against Lee Marvin in February of 1972 asking for 50% of his estate.

After being rejected by two lower courts, Mitchelson pushed the case to the California Supreme Court, where he won.

The Marvin vs. Marvin case finally reached trial in January of 1979 and it quickly became a mass-media event.

The judge in the case, Judge Marshall, awarded about $100,000 to Triola-Marvin, for the salary she potentially lost giving up her career as a singer.

Lee Marvin’s attorneys appealed, and the decision was reversed, leaving Triola with nothing and Mitchelson with nothing.

Mitchelson didn’t care though, because the fame the case brought him was worth millions of dollars in representing “wronged spouses,” mainly women.

The fact that in the end, Triola got nothing was not well publicized in the many media reports. It happened after the initial hoopala had died down and was never emphasized in the reporting.

Over the years, some of the women Marvin represented were celebrities like Bianca Jagger, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Joan Collins ( a reverse of his norm as Collins was the one being sued by estranged husband Peter Holm.)

Mostly though, Mitchelson took cases of non-celebrity live-in girlfriends or mistresses of rich celebrities: Sara Dylan (Bob), Anna Kashfi (Marlon Brando) Nancy Lee Andrews (Ringo Starr), Veronica Buss and Puppi Buss (girlfriends of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss) Soraya Khashoggi, Kayatana Harrison (Flip Wilson.)

Marvin represented a few men: Mark Christian, ex-lover of Rock Hudson, in his widely publicized case against Hudson’s estate for failing to disclose his AIDS status to Christian. Mel Torme, Carl Sagan and Sonny Bono were other clients.

Mitchelson was disbarred in 1988 for grossly overcharging clients and went to prison in 1993 for tax evasion.

Marvin Mitchelson was released from prison in 1998 and died in 2004.

Lee Marvin died in 1987 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Michelle Triola went on to have a long live-in relationship with actor- comedian Dick Van Dyke. She died of lung cancer in 2009.

Information from: Ladies’ Man: The Life & Trials of Marvin Mitchelson, by John A. Jenks. The only published biography of Marvin Mitchelson. It’ a fascinating look at an LA character of his time.

Which is all you can ever be right?

1973 #2: Santa Barbara. Meet the Hon. Desmond Guinness. Diana Mitford. Oswald Mosley. 1969 Flashback. Suzy Knickerbocker.

Posted on August 5, 2020

**LAT Oct 10 1973. Paige is the date of Desmond Guinness from Ireland** **at a party given in his honor by Santa Barbara society.**

What you see above, is the only mention of Paige Young in this article, besides her photo.

Hard to believe Paige had only 6 more months to live after this article appeared.

I e-mailed with Beverley Jackson who is pictured to the left of Mrs. Louis-Dreyfuss above. Jackson was the new society writer for the Santa Barbara paper at that time. She remembered Desmond but not Paige.

She wrote that Desmond “was always very discreet in these matters.”

The elderly Mrs. Louis-Dreyfuss is probably Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ grandmother. Julia is famously from a wealthy Santa Barbara family.

The rest of the article by Jody Jacobs, society writer for the LAT, discusses the Santa Barbara society and VIPs who attended this party for Desmond Guinness.

Page 3 coverage of the Desmond Guinness parties in Santa Barbara. Carmen Alexander grew up to be a beloved teacher at a Santa Barbara Open Alternative school. Tragically she died of a sudden bacterial infection in 2012.

Who is this Desmond Guinness, Paige’s date in Santa Barbara, Oct of 1973?

I find his name most often written as “the Hon. Desmond Guinness.”

**Usually written with the Hon. before his well known last name.**

Let’s start with his family of origin.

Desmond is, not surprisingly, an heir to the Guinness brewery fortune.

His father was Bryan Guinness, titled the 2nd Baron Moyne; also a poet and playwright.

His mother was the controversial Diana Mitford, from the equally controversial English society family with 6 eccentric and beautiful sisters, parents and grandparents. There are several books published about the Mitford family, the sisters in particular.

Desmond and his brother didn’t grow up with their mother Diana Mitford; she left her sons and their father when the boys were toddlers. Her reason for this was to marry British politician turned extremist Oswald Mosley, in 1936.

Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF), after visiting both Mussolini and Hitler. Hitler attended the wedding of Mitford and Mosley and the reception took place at the home of Joseph Goebbels.

You can see why Diana Mitford is considered controversial, and she wasn’t the only Mitford sister acquainted with Hitler.

During WW 2, Mitford and Mosley were considered a threat and placed under British house arrest; 3 years in Holloway Prison.

I read that Desmond did visit his mother in prison, at least once.

Diana went on to have more children: two sons with Mosley.

The couple lived out their years in France after the war; they were highly disliked in England.

Desmond Guinness grows up and in 1954, married the beautiful Hermione Maria-Gabrielle Von Urach, who had German royalty and titles on her father’s side. Her English mother was institutionalized when “Gabrielle” was only 6 years old. At age 18, Gabrielle became known as “Mariga.”

**Evening Standard, London, Nov. 25, 1957** **Body language!**

This young, attractive and socially connected couple shared a love of architecture and history. They had no need to work for a living.

Desmond and Mariga purchased the decaying Leixlip castle of Ireland, restored it and made it their primary residence.

Desmond Guinness at Leixlip Castle Ireland. Photo by Slim Aarons. This is not the full image.

The couple were known for giving fabulous high society parties in Leixlip Castle and produced two beautiful children: Marina and Patrick.

The couple founded the Irish Georgian Society in 1957/58, dedicated to preservation of Irish Georgian castles and Irish castles in general.

Mariga and Desmond restored several more historic castles in Ireland and published books on the topic.

Slim Aarons took a now iconic photo of Desmond Guinness with Marina and Patrick; all three share the same icy-blue gaze.

I found in my research that Desmond toured the US extensively to fundraise for the IGS from about the mid– 1960s through the 1980s. I read dozens of articles about his visits in the newspaper archives.

Desmond was warmly welcomed at numerous US high society and historical society gatherings; he would present lectures, slideshows and promote his books about Irish architecture, history and design. His visits were covered by local newspaper society columnists, who would write about the VIPs who attended the lecture/party/luncheon/cocktail party/dinner, in honor of the Hon. Desmond Guinness.

I’m including a only a few newspaper examples from 1969.

**From the Palladium Item Richmond, Indiana March 16, 1969**

I picked 1969 out of the many years Desmond travelled the US because it’s the same year Paige Young was touring the US and Canada for Playboy promotion.

“Suzy” aka Suzy Knickerbocker, was a syndicated “society” columnist for over 50 years and worked for many different newspapers.

**Top of a long Suzy column. From 1964.**

The above piece about Suzy from March 15, 1969. She also had a banner year. “Suzy Knickerbocker” was at the height of her influence (and salary) for writing about international high society’s activities.

Suzi introduced her specialty as including European society types with ir without titles, Royals and would-be Royals, to the American reader. Suzy K. wrote adoringly about Desmond (mainly) and Mariga several times.