Kid Carolina
Page 1
PRAISE FOR KID CAROLINA
“Heidi Schnakenberg writes with passion and energy in Kid Carolina. This woman knows her facts, and she presents them with clear, straightforward ease. Ms. Schnakenberg weaves a compelling narrative that provokes and entertains throughout, and more than once I found myself gasping at the events in the story.”
—Keith Powell, actor, 30 Rock
“A page-turner! A juicy and intriguing account of Dick Reynolds’s life and legacy.”
—Nadia Yakoob, former editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal
“A life up in smoke, with plenty of heat, passion, and scandal along the way. Heidi Schnakenberg’s lively chronicle of riches-gone-wrong proves that money may not buy happiness, but it sure makes for a good read.”
—Deborah Davis, author of Gilded: How Newport Became America’s Richest Resort
“R.J. Reynolds Jr. had way too much money and left the type of legacy that I find oddly intriguing and reprehensible—an unbelievable life of debauchery, vanity, sorrow, adventure, and philanthropy. But this biography is more than a comprehensive account of a tycoon’s accomplishments and mistakes. Schnakenberg’s adept storytelling gets the blood flowing through the complicated heart of “Dick.” Kid Carolina seizes the reader with a tale of passion, longing, and uncertainty. Of course there is an influential legacy here, but there is also bona fide life pulsing through every page.”
—Mattox Roesch, author of Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same
“An immersive, sprawling saga of scionhood, tobacco, manslaughter, and love. Unlike his contemporary Howard Hughes, precious little has been known about the outsized life of enigmatic tycoon R.J. Reynolds Jr.… until now. This fascinating tale is rescued from the dustbin of history by Heidi Schnakenberg’s extraordinary, clear-eyed Kid Carolina. The legendary cigarette magnate’s best and worst days are resurrected with an excess of evocative detail, viewed from a psychologically astute perspective with a palpable empathy for all involved. Even if you’re a non-smoker, Kid Carolina burns long and satisfies deeply, like only the best cancer-sticks… but without any of the risk.”
—Steven Bagatourian, screenwriter of American Gun and Independent Spirit Award nominee, Best Feature Film
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Heidi Schnakenberg
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: March 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59995-269-7
For Karl
Contents
Praise for Kid Carolina
Copyright
R. J. Reynolds Jr. Chronology
Introduction
CHAPTER 1: The Patriarch
CHAPTER 2: Favorite Son
CHAPTER 3: Life after R.J.
CHAPTER 4: Crashing with the Stock Market
CHAPTER 5: Tragedy at Reynolda
CHAPTER 6: Love, Yachts, and Politics
CHAPTER 7: Love and War
CHAPTER 8: Destiny Calls
CHAPTER 9: Dick and Muriel’s Secret Affair
CHAPTER 10: On the Run
CHAPTER 11: Return to Sapelo Island
CHAPTER 12: Cracks in the Romance
CHAPTER 13: Le Divorce
CHAPTER 14: Winston-Salem Society
CHAPTER 15: Smith
CHAPTER 16: Things Fall Apart
CHAPTER 17: Darien
CHAPTER 18: North Carolina’s Prince of Wales: The Mystery
Epilogue
Illustrations
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Source Notes
Bibliography
R. J. REYNOLDS JR. CHRONOLOGY
April 4, 1906 Born in Winston-Salem
July 29, 1918 R.J. Sr. dies
1921 Katharine marries J. Edward Johnston
1921–1923 Attends school (Reynolda, Woodbury Forest, Virginia; Tome School, Maryland; Culver Military Academy, Indiana)
May 24, 1924 Katharine Reynolds Johnston dies
1924–1925 Attends North Carolina State University
1925–1927 Obtains pilot’s license from Orville Wright, founds airline companies in New York
May–Nov. 1929 Drunk driving accident in London, trial, and incarceration
July 6, 1932 Z. Smith Reynolds dies
Jan. 1, 1933 Marries Elizabeth Dillard
Dec. 7, 1933 Birth of first son, R. J. Reynolds III
1934 Comes into full inheritance, builds Devotion
1934 Purchases Sapelo Island
July 31, 1936 Birth of second son, John Dillard Reynolds
1937–1939 Yacht racing
July 19, 1938 Birth of third son, Zachary Taylor Reynolds
Jan. 27, 1940 Birth of fourth son, William Neal Reynolds
Jan. 4, 1941 Appointed treasurer of Democratic National Committee
May 12, 1941 Becomes mayor of Winston-Salem
June 1942 Finishes Z. Smith Reynolds Airport; joins the Navy
1942–1945 Navy service in World War II
Jan. 1, 1946 Divorces Elizabeth Dillard
Aug. 7, 1946 Marries Marianne O’Brien
July 13, 1947 Birth of fifth son, Michael Randolph Reynolds
Dec. 2, 1948 Birth of sixth son, Patrick Cleveland Reynolds
1951–1952 Builds Aries in England
Aug. 7, 1952 Divorces Marianne O’Brien
Aug. 8, 1952 Marries Muriel Marston Greenough
1953 Mary Katharine Babcock dies
May 16, 1960 Divorces Muriel Marston Greenough
March 15, 1961 Marries Annemarie Schmitt
May 1962 Second divorce from Muriel Marston Greenough
May 1963 Settlement with Muriel Marston Greenough
July 10, 1963 Second marriage to Annemarie Schmitt
Dec. 14, 1964 Dies
Dec. 17, 1964 Birth of seventh child, first daughter, Irene Sabina Reynolds
INTRODUCTION
I was first introduced to Jeanette Scotton, a Southern transplant and family friend, at a wedding in South Carolina in 2001. A few years later she approached me because she heard I had a penchant for nonfiction drama and she had something to show me.
As I sat down in her parents’ cozy Midwest farmhouse, she pulled out stacks of manuscripts, newspaper clippings, letters, archives, estate documents, photos, diaries, court filings, old, dusty magazines, private investigation materials, and a suitcase etched with the monogram MRM. This suitcase had belonged to Muriel Reynolds, the third wife of R. J. “Dick” Reynolds Jr., the late heir of the RJR Tobacco dynasty. Jeanette had acquired the suitcase and its contents from Muriel’s best friend, Humphrey Hutchins, who was compiling a book for Muriel that he never completed.
As I sorted through the papers, Jeanette told me she had to be careful because, well, she was convinced she had been haunted by a ghost who paced her Georgia balcony at night. In the South, legend has it that a well-documented electromagnetic charge attracts the human spirit in Savannah and Georgia’s coastal islands. Jeanette felt sure she was being haunted by the ghost of Muriel, who was encouraging someone to tell the story.
I was struck by the detail and enormity of the story of R. J. Reynolds Jr., as
told from Muriel’s point of view. I was well acquainted with the RJR Tobacco Company, but I didn’t know much about the family. Dick Reynolds’s personal life captivated me, and I was intrigued by his love of the sea—his constant desire to escape. I imagined how the pressures of Dick’s life and his alcohol-induced misery led him to simply want to run, or in his case, sail. It was interesting to see that this great man was not so different from anyone else—seeking love and freedom, but often disappointing others and hurting himself in the process.
Dick’s story and mysterious end reminded me of many other tales of the wealthy who ran themselves into a circle of destruction and controversy, like the Kennedy, Onassis, Ford, and Niarchos families, who were also struck with untimely deaths in the midst of unimaginable wealth.
The dynasty from which Dick came is, without question, one of the most famous tobacco empires in America and the Southeast, where the Reynoldses and their products—Camels, Winstons, Kools, and Reynolds Wrap, to name a few, are household names. The power and influence of the Reynolds family is most deeply felt in North Carolina, where R. J. Reynolds Sr. is considered the forefather and patron of the city of Winston-Salem, and the majority of the population is employed by Reynolds establishments or organizations made possible by the vision of R.J. Sr. and his descendants. Every corner is touched by the family—from the city’s premier museum, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, to city parks such as Tanglewood and Reynolds Park. Winston-Salem’s Z. Smith Reynolds Airport and Wake Forest University were established by the Reynoldses, and the Baptist Hospital, once heavily subsidized by Reynolds money, is the city’s largest employer. Towering over the skyline is the twenty-two-story RJR Tobacco building—the first Southern skyscraper, and the model for New York’s Empire State Building.
In the 1930s, the Reynolds heirs were considered the wealthiest in the country and dominated the newsreels with the nearby Dukes. As the twentieth century roared on, young Dick Reynolds shared the reputation of the quintessential daredevil-playboy heir with the likes of young billionaire Howard Hughes.
However, Dick was more than a successor to the family riches. He was a Southern icon in his own right, and a pioneer in business, engineering, politics, and philanthropy. He served as treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and developed numerous industries across America. He earned his pilot’s license from Orville Wright as a teenager and developed aviation at Long Island’s Curtiss Field after Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. But his greatest love wasn’t tobacco, aviation, or even the stock market—it was the open water. Dick became an expert yachtsman—an accomplishment that was as personal as it was ambitious, and his precious boats shaped a life that was as successful as it was tumultuous.
Dick thrived on the highs of every new, wild endeavor, only to crash and burn into drastic declines. At home, he would often run from his obligations and toss opportunities for bonding with his sons into a blue-green ocean somewhere off the coast of a foreign land. His yachts were first, and his family was second. Muriel once said, “If I was drowning and Dick’s boat was sinking, he’d save the boat first.”
But Dick’s nautical getaways couldn’t save him from the physical effects of alcoholism, emphysema, or the dramatic events of his last years, until he finally met his entangled end in a question mark.
As I scrounged for further details of Dick’s life and death, I read the Associated Press archives, the Atlanta Journal, the Winston-Salem Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine anytime Dick Reynolds’s name popped up from the 1920s to the 1960s. His life was closely followed by the press from his teens until his last divorce. After he married his fourth wife, Annemarie, his name and legacy all but disappeared from the news and his death was little more than a footnote. My journeys took me all over the country, from California to New York, and to North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia many times over. I had Dick’s steps retraced in Europe and my team visited his final resting place in Switzerland. My research team spent hours going through court documents, newspaper archives, and libraries in five states and three countries. We talked with family members, friends, former employees, acquaintances, and descendants of people who knew Dick at the height of his fame. I visited with staff at Reynolds residences, Reynolds institutions and businesses, and Reynolds tourist attractions, and with residents in North Carolina and Georgia who knew the family. What I learned most about Dick was that he was very popular and loved, and is still greatly missed by many who never quite got over his early death. I also learned that his descendants never got over the pain of the loss of their father.
Informed by this exclusive material and exhaustive documentary research, Kid Carolina provides a window into the intimate personal life of the scion, astute businessman, and sailing genius. This story is not only a tale of Dick’s great accomplishments and fame; it is also a love story about Dick and Muriel—an intricate documentation of the passion and troubles Dick shared with his most controversial wife, who matched him in both intellect and temperament and with whom he shared his life story. Kid Carolina reveals how R. J. Reynolds Jr. shaped and influenced American life and shows the ways in which his personal choices corrupted a once promising life and family.
Until now, Dick’s life has never been given this kind of personal attention—he has always been chronicled in the shadow of his father. In the pages ahead you’ll read a portrait of the side of an icon that has never been seen before, and witness the unraveling of the firstborn son of R. J. Reynolds and heir to one of the world’s greatest tobacco fortunes.
“We cannot control the winds, but we can always adjust our sails.”
—R. J. Reynolds Jr.
CHAPTER 1
The Patriarch
1850–1906
Richard Joshua Reynolds Sr., founder of the family tobacco fortune, was born on July 28, 1850, in Critz County, Virginia, where his parents, Hardin and Nancy Reynolds, had settled after their marriage in 1843. As a youngster, R.J.’s father had participated in an auction and won a bid to expand on his family’s remote homestead at the foot of Virginia’s No Business Mountain and in the shadows of the Blue Ridge and North Carolina mountain ranges. The 717-acre property, located between the North and South Mayo Rivers, which they fondly named Rock Spring Plantation, was part of Hardin’s huge, eight-thousand-acre local land ownership, and the humble house sat in the middle of the great estate. To maintain the vast plantation, much of which was used to grow tobacco, the Reynoldses owned dozens of slaves.
In the 1840s, the Reynolds family rebuilt, expanded, and remodeled their modest yet aristocratic house as their brood
grew. The two-story brick home included several bedrooms, a dining room, a parlor with a fireplace, a central hall, and solid chestnut wood flooring throughout. A brick cookhouse sat apart, connected by a covered pathway. They had luxuries that few farmers in the area dreamed of—soft beds, a brick milk house, a log ice house, and silver flatware. They even had their own rose-wood piano, books, and photographs, which few other farmers could afford.
The house was surrounded by an iron fence and a simple garden. When family members passed away, they were buried in a small cemetery in the backyard. A tree-lined, mile-long road led from the remote homestead’s main gate to the tiny village of Critz.
From 1844 onward, Hardin and Nancy produced a family of sixteen children, but only eight survived childhood, and Richard Joshua “R.J.” was the second oldest son. Some of Hardin and Nancy’s children died in infancy from disease and later from a smallpox outbreak during the Civil War. All of the lost children were buried in the estate’s graveyard.
After the Civil War, the Reynoldses were nearly broke. The family’s eighty-eight slaves were freed and their cattle pillaged, but thankfully the house was left standing. Young R.J. managed to save the family’s horses during the war as well—he hid them deep in the woods when the Northern troops descended. The family might have been helped by a little good luck, too. Nancy had retained an old silver
coin, which had been handed down to her by her father. It was called the “Joshua Coin”—a square, seventeenth-century Peruvian silver piece that Nancy’s grandfather had procured during the French and Indian War. Joshua Cox Sr. had worn the coin around his neck, believing it saved his life during the war. Since then, the coin was thought to bring good luck to those who rubbed it on a piece of gold. The Joshua Coin had to be passed down to male heirs with the name “Joshua.” Naturally, R.J. inherited the coin as a young man and carried it with him wherever he went.
During the fighting, Hardin managed to continue farming tobacco in the hidden areas of the acreage—away from the prying eyes of Southern officials who forbade farmers from growing nonnecessities during the war. They were to grow only food in support of the troops, but Hardin knew he would face economic ruin if he ceased tobacco production entirely. When the war ended, Hardin quickly put his boys and remaining horses to work farming the tobacco plantation again.
The days of Reconstruction were tough for plantation owners in the South. Their land could be taken from them unless they stated that they agreed with the abolition of slavery and the terms of the Civil War. Hardin didn’t hesitate to proclaim that the Civil War was right and just, and he successfully safeguarded his land from Union forces.
Whether Hardin believed what he said or whether he simply wanted to protect his land, no one knew for sure.
A Businessman Is Born
As the Reynolds family resumed tobacco farming, Hardin’s boys, including R.J. Sr., who had severe dyslexia and dropped out of college early in his academic career, took wagonloads of tobacco to markets in numerous neighboring states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina. One town in North Carolina called Salem caught young R.J.’s eye. Salem was a predominantly Moravian town, originally settled by Czechs, Austrians, and Germans in the 1700s, with a cultural center square big enough for the county market, and with its soon-to-be developed rail line, it was a prime location for tobacco sales. Many of the wealthy Moravians, who had built some of Salem’s most beautiful old homes, loved tobacco as much as any other Southerner.