This page is under research and construction. The gist of the story is the following:

As a Broadway actress, Blanche Yurka ran in the same circles as Libby Holman, a torch-song chanteuse. Twenty-seven-year-old Libby was pursued by an infatuated Zachary Smith Reynolds, the twenty-year-old son of the R.J. Reynolds tobacco family, and they were married in November 1931. Barely six months later, with Libby already pregnant (by someone), Blanche and others of the Broadway crowd were attending a 4th of July party at the Reynolds mansion in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There was some sort of dispute and Zachary went sulking into the bedroom. Later Libby (and Zach's friend Ab Walker?) went in, and a gunshot sound rang out. Libby, Ab, and Blanche drove the mortally wounded Zach to the hospital. After his death there was an inquest, at which Blanche testified, and Libby and Ab were indicted for murder. However, given the influence of the Reynolds family and their interest in protecting their grandson and containing rumors about Zachary's sexual proclivities, the charges were dropped, and the death was ruled a suicide. Libby inherited part of the fortune, and her son Christopher ("Topper") inherited even more. In contrast to the hundreds of other famous people and episodes she described, Blanche omitted all mention of Libby Holman and this more troubling episode from her autobiography, The Bohemian Girl. Later Libby built a 55-acre estate (later doubled in size) across the Stamford-Greenwich line in Connecticut. Called Treetrops, it became renowned for its millions of daffodils. Libby wanted it preserved and developed as a cultural center. At some point (after her death in 1971?) she tried, either in person or by bequest, to give Treetops to Boston University. However BU officials decided that it was too expensive to keep up, and passed on the opportunity. I do know that Howard Gottlieb, the renowned BU archivist, was able off the top of his head, to tell me about Libby and Blanche and the Reynolds trial, when I first mentioned Blanche Yurka to him.

For one accounting of Libby Holman, the Reynolds, and Treetops, go to http://www.paulbowles.org/photosjanebowles.html .