Adorable Story #54: Jim Kimberly
The gentleman driver, Palm Beach socialite, and heir to the Kimberly-Clark Kleenex fortune
“One great hobby — I follow it religiously — is staying alive”
—Jim Kimberly
James “Jim” Kimberly was born in 1908 and spent the first 12 years of his life in Neenah, Wisconsin. He was the grandson of John A. Kimberly, one of the four founders of the paper conglomerate Kimberly-Clark Corp.
In 1929, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He earned the nickname Gray Fox because of his snowy hair, and he wore a gold earring in one ear in the 1950s, way before it became fashionable.
In 1931, after graduating from the MIT, Jim joined Kimberly-Clark slowly ascending the corporate ladder to finally become the head of the International Cellucotton Products branch (supervising the production of Kleenex, Kotex and Delsey lines).
During World War II, Jim served as an assistant director of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
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Races
As a kid, Jim raced iceboats on Lake Winnebago with legendary ferocity and even won a few cups with Phantom II, a famous racing sailboat.
Since 1949, when he first drove a Jaguar XK120, his interest turned to sports cars. From his first Jaguar, he progressed to a Healey Silverstone and then to an array of Maseratis and Ferraris.
His passion for cars made him the president of the Sports Car Club of America Inc. and in 1956, he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated after winning the Sebring International race on a Ferrari.
In the 50s alone, Jim Kimberly owned the following Ferraris (most of them now virtually priceless):
166 MM Barchetta Touring 0010 M
195 S Berlinetta Touring 0060 M
340 America Barchetta Touring 0124 AM
340 America Spider Vignale 0204 A
225 Sport Spider Vignale 0220 ED
375 MM Spider Pinin Farina 0364 AM
375 Plus Spider Pinin Farina 0384 AM
121 LM Spider Scaglietti 0532 LM
625 LM Spider Touring 0642 MDTR
In particular, the cherry red 1954 Ferrari 375 Plus Spider racer was owned by Jim Kimberly until 1958 when he sold its damaged body for USD 2,500 to a gentleman named Karl Kleve.
After a multi-year legal battle, the car would be later owned by the Victoria Secret’s owner Lex Wexner — who paid USD 16.5m for it — then by the fashion giant Ralph Lauren and finally by the Milanese billionaire Giorgio Perfetti (founder of the confectionary conglomerate Perfetti Van Melle).
In 1956, Jim moved from Chicago to Palm Beach, and in 1968, he retired from Kimberly-Clark after a 37 years career.
He then proceeded to set up his own USD 5 million investment firm and purchased a cattle farm in Maryland.
Jacqueline Kimberly
Roberta Jacqueline Trezise was born in 1950, the daughter of John Trezise, a Connecticut investment banker: she was just 17 years old, working as a part-time receptionist at a Palm Beach art gallery, when she met the silver-haired Jim Kimberly at a party.
Two years later, in 1969, the two were married, living on North Lake Way, and playing host to frequent house guest King Hussein of Jordan.
As years passed by, King Hussein became a sort of family friend, so much that when he usually landed in Florida, it was Jim Kimberly (purposely appointed Honorary Consul of Jordan) who went to pick him up and escort him directly to their Palm Beach mansion.
King Hussein was so appreciative of Mrs. Kimberly’s hospitality that he later bought her a white 246 GTS Ferrari Dino (SN 7916/1974) as a token of his gratitude.
Pulitzer divorce
Jacqueline Kimberly was widely talked about in the media in 1982 because of her involvement in the high-profile divorce case between Roxanne Pulitzer and her husband Peter Pulitzer (she was his second wife, after he had divorced Lillian “Lilly” Pulitzer in 1969).
Roxanne Pulitzer, a socialite, and Peter, scion of the publishing family, entered into a bitter and public divorce battle that was filled with scandalous accusations and revelations: the trial became a media spectacle as salacious details about their personal lives, infidelity, occult practices and extravagant lifestyle were exposed.
The Pulitzers’ custody battle over their twin sons quickly spilled over with
endless tales of cocaine-sniffing parties and adultery: in particular, during the divorce trial, Peter Pulitzer testified that Roxanne Pulitzer and Jacqueline Kimberly “jump into bed together when their husbands leave town.”
Both women denied the allegation.
Roxanne played just as rough: she accused Peter of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter from his first marriage, which both parties denied. When the daughter took the stand, she claimed that in fact it had been Roxanne who propositioned her.
The reciprocal accusations among members of one of the highest profile families in the United States of the time quickly gained national attention and the divorce trial was even serialised for Rolling Stones magazine by legendary writer Hunter S. Thompson.
After 19 days of testimony, Peter Pulitzer was granted custody of their twins. Roxanne walked away with only her Porsche, USD 60,000 worth of jewellery, and USD 2,000 a month for two years.
Kimberly divorce
The Pulitzer divorce and subsequent national clamour had an inevitable strain on Jacqueline and Jim marriage and in 1985 — just a few days after receiving his last apology letter — Jacqueline sued for divorce, asked the judge to throw out their pre-nuptial agreement, and requested a yearly alimony of USD 96,000 for the rest of her life.
Their pre-nuptial agreement limited alimony for Jacqueline to USD 18,000 a year for each year the marriage lasted (17 years in total): as a comparison, Jacqueline testified in court that in 1985 alone she had spent USD 17,000 for a four-week holiday in Houston, Texas.
During the divorce proceedings, Jacqueline Kimberly also accused her husband of pointing a gun at her, threatening her with a knife and incessantly prying into her personal affairs.
“I love him, but I won’t live with him,” she told the Judge during the trial.
Jacqueline’s lawyer argued that the pre-nuptial agreement should have been thrown out because Jim Kimberly did not reveal to his future wife the full extent of his net-worth before the marriage.
But Jim filed an affidavit stating that his original USD 5 million fortune of 1969 had already dwindled to less than USD 730,000 by 1985 (Jim also explained that his monthly running expenses at the time were approximately USD 31,500).
He also denied his wife’s other allegations and said he did not want their marriage to end.
The Judge, however, granted the divorce and ruled that the pre-nuptial agreement Jacqueline signed before she married Jim Kimberly in 1969 — when she was 19 and he was 62 — was fully valid.
Later life
Jim Kimberly later sold his Palm Beach mansion to King Hussein of Jordan and moved to Lake Clarke Shores together with his five dogs, four cats and 12 squirrels: he lived there more frugally and died of cancer in 1994.
After the divorce from Jim, Jacqueline Kimberly worked as a waitress in North Carolina: she then returned to Florida, living briefly in Delray Beach.
She did not remarry and, for almost two decades, lived as friends and roommates with Susan Lynch (the Kimberlys’ house manager when Jacqueline and Jim were married) in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Sadly, her longtime friend Susan died of cancer on July 4, 2005 and Jacqueline committed suicide on the following New Year’s Day, 2006 outside her apartment in Wilton Manors in Broward County.
She was just 55 and left behind a note saying she was “depressed over the recent death of a friend.”
—Alberto @ Adorable Times
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