sedona legend helen frye

Eternal Girl Friends

Helen Varner Vanderbilt Frye

The Baroness Garnett Stackelberg

Evangeline Brown

Sedona Legend Profile Series

The "Camelot Years" of
Transcontinental and Western Air

This saga has never been told- a story rich in love and companionship. Though some details are lost to the sands of time.....the love and depth has endured. This is a story about three women......three very special angelic souls. These three spirits came together to forge a lifelong friendship here on earth, a friendship that will surely endure for an eternity. From different stations in life, miraculously they came together as equals, each bringing her own special sacred gift to the circle. Their lives filled with happiness and joy, tragedy and tears..........each was there for the other throughout the years. Beyond the curtain of death, the bond remained. The circle.....never broken.

In 1935, Helen Varner, a beautiful small town girl from West Virginia, married into one of the most prestigious and well-connected families in America. The Vanderbilt name was synonymous with riches and wealth far beyond the average person's imagination. Her name now, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., Helen became a member of an American Legacy. This young girl, wise and mature beyond her years, soon became a woman. Helen was not only a Vanderbilt, but a member of the main branch of the Vanderbilt family. Her husband was a direct descendant of the very first Commodore Vanderbilt. (For more information on this lineage, please click here). Helen suddenly found herself in a world of opulence and pomp, in her new world, people lived by a sacred code: wealth, power, and privilege. Throughout her time as a Vanderbilt wife, Helen experienced quite a different path. The Vanderbilt name was well-connected all over the world, and Helen was welcomed into the finest palaces and dined in the presence of some of the most respected icons of our planet. But the important thing to mention here is that Helen never forgot where she came from, her life enriched by the marriage, yet never corrupted by the materialism therein. Always she strived to reach out to those she met with compassion, regardless of their path.

Helen and Cornelius Vanderbilt socialized all over the world. The Vanderbilt name opened doors- American Royalty mixed with age-old titles of Europe. Traveling throughout Europe, India and China, observing the way people lived, Helen was struck by the tremendous rift between the rich and poor. During these years Helen found comfort in the elite international commune of Shanghai, an exotic locale then called, "the Paris of the East." An era unsurpassed in recent times, Shanghai was heady with glamour and exciting people. From artists to royalty, opportunists to the idle rich, Shanghai was a vision of decadence, wonder, and liberation. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., was a perfect fit!

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. as shown in a Pond's Cold Cream ad. Helen's Pond's portraits were advertised worldwide in from 1935 to about 1945, making Helen Vanderbilt one of the most recognized women in the world. As Helen was once heard to say, "it mattered not whether I traveled the ends of the earth, or within Beverly Hills, people would come up to me and say, aren't you Helen Vanderbilt"? This particular ad ran in December of 1935. Helen is shown with a sable or mink fur draped behind her, wearing an elaborate embroidered jacket. Her hair dressed with an unusual comb, diamond and ruby ear rings, highlighted by an art deco broach. Ad courtesy of the Pond's Extract Company. For a larger photo please see "The Lost Photos of Helen Frye", or "Her Story".

Helen Frye in Washington D.C., April 17th, 1944, awaiting her husband, Jack Frye, and Howard Hughes, which were piloting the brand-new incoming Constellation airliner. Left to right, Jack's personal secretary, Beverley Dille, Helen Vanderbilt Frye, and society columnist, Austine (Bootsi) Cassini, (later Mrs. William Randolph Hearst). Other persons are Military Brass and the Press. See: the Lost Photos of Jack and Helen Frye, the TWA Constellation Story, and the "Star of Paris".

The Baroness Garnett Stackelberg, said to be one of the most regally beautiful women in the world. Glamorous and lovely, she had the world's most eligible men falling at her feet!
Courtesy of Sandy von Stackelberg

Evangeline Jones Brown, shown here to the right, in her early 20's as a young lady. At her first interview with Jack and Helen Frye at the Doubleday Mansion, Helen Frye thought she was too young, at 22, to handle the enormous responsibilities of entertaining at the estate. However, Evangeline had another idea, she asked Helen to let her into the kitchen. After a very short time an impromptu dinner was served for the four of them in the mansion's kitchen. Jack and Helen were so astounded by the lovely fare Evangeline whipped up on such short notice that Jack Frye hired her on the spot! Please see this link.

The scent of gardenia and jasmine wafted over Shanghai Harbor, and found its way to another kindred spirit, Garnett Butler. This lovely girl reared in Nebraska, later settled in Portland Oregon with her family. At 22, Garnett went south to Oregon State College, now Oregon State University in Corvallis. From there she went to San Francisco and took a position with the Northern Pacific Railway. Yearning for a life of enchantment, it was there she became passionately interested in an exciting place in a far away land, where a group of friends had already arrived. With a college and childhood girlfriend Margerie Popple Richards as a traveling companion, bravely the two booked passage to the Orient in 1932. As her ship steamed out of the San Francisco Bay, Garnett gazed back on her familiar world, excited and apprehensive about her new path. The steamer's heading was the commercial port of the Yangtze region, gem of the orient..............Shanghai China!

Garnett arrived with modest means.... all of $200.00 in her handbag. Frightened, but brave, she knew she would survive somehow. Thankfully she had friends in Shanghai, and in discussing her survival they encouraged her to visit the American Consulate. Soon she found her way to the agency, through twisting streets filled with the hubbub of rickshaws, vendors, and intoxicating aromas she didn't recognize. When asked about her skills, all she could offer was her typing. One additional asset though- she was radiantly beautiful. As a matter of fact many have said since, "she was the most beautiful woman I have ever met". So with a quick look up and down of this entrancing vision, the Consulate's assistant immediately said, "your hired!" From this point, Garnett's life began. With her embassy connections she was integrated into Shanghai society, and included in the social gatherings of the finest residents.

It was during this time she met Helen Vanderbilt. Both women, glamorous and lovely, had a legion of men at their feet. Helen, a Pond's Cold Cream spokesperson, was involved with the new, orient, Pond's manufacturing-distribution division. Garnett, received six marriage proposals in as little as 6 weeks. Out of these, one gentleman captured her heart. He was a charming renowned Canadian doctor, named William Gardiner. Soon they were married at the Royal Hawaiian, in Waikiki, then they settled in Shanghai at a lavish residence suite overlooking the waterfront on the harbor. As told by Helen Vanderbilt Frye many years later, "the man was rich as sin, their home filled with ivory, jade and pearls". Garnett was once quoted as stating about the experience, "Life was wonderful- we had a 14-room penthouse and a houseboat. Everybody had a car and a chauffeur......to say nothing of the good and faithful houseboys, cooks and amahs. If you were at one of the clubs, swimming or playing cards, you'd call the cook and say, 'We're going to be 12 for dinner,' and then you'd go home at 8 p.m., and there would be dinner! Life was so easy and fascinating." Helen and Garnett would often share outfits, and pass themselves off as sisters. Other associations during this time in China included a lady named Mary Star, Trudy Davis, and Marlys Chartel (who lived with Garnett for a time in Shanghai).

Meanwhile in about 1938, Helen, her marriage waning, and weary of her husband's womanizing, eventually returned to the states for a divorce. Helen, often would catch Cornelius Jr. with various women, and he would try to win her back with roses and furs. Finally Helen had enough, and expressed a desire to divorce. However, money and power do not always equate to fairness. Neely (Cornelius) locked Helen in a tower room of one of the Vanderbilt mansions, and Helen like a bird in a gold-gilded cage was unable to escape. Garnett, visiting the mainland, tried to see Helen and was horrified that she had been restrained. So she enlisted the help of, (some say her husband or a friend), found the key and rescued Helen. Understandably that was the end of the Vanderbilt marriage.

By 1939, Helen and Tommy Smith had rekindled their teenage romance, planning on marriage. But this was not to be, as Tommy decided to fly a commemorative trans-Atlantic flight, and was soon lost without a trace. Helen was very close to Anita Smith, (Tommy's mother) and Helen's mother Maude, was Anita's best friend. Helen had met Jack Frye, president and founder of TWA, several years prior, and thought he was as she said, "a nice looking fellow". The rest is of course is history, Helen and Jack became romantically entwined and it was he who helped her obtain her divorce from Vanderbilt. The Fryes were married in January of 1941, with Anita as the Matron of Honor. Helen never forgot a friend in need, and it grieved her that Tommy Smith was lost somewhere in Newfoundland likely dead, but never properly buried. So it was she that enlisted the aid of Jack, with TWA and Howard Hughes, to search for the wreckage. This they accomplished but the body mysteriously was never found. As busy as Jack Frye was, he was never so short of time that he couldn't offer assistance to a fellow aviator in need.

In China, Garnett and her physician husband were caught up in the Japanese occupation of the Shanghai region after December of 1941. Interestingly, like two sisters living uncannily similar lives, Garnett too, was held prisoner in her home, but her jailer was the Japanese Government. For seven long months all non-Japanese residents were kept under house arrest. Garnett subsisted on cracked wheat. Protecting Garnett with his silence, her husband would slip out of the flat each day on covert missions which have never been revealed. Finally a political deal was arranged, whereas the United States offered to exchange a Japanese spy for one of Dr. Gardiner's patients, a diplomat, John Benjamin Powell. "JB" Powell was a well known columnist, managing editor of the Weekly China Review, managing director of the China Press, and correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, London Daily Herald, and Chicago Tribune. During the early 1940's, Mr. Powell proved no friend to the Japanese government of which imprisoned him from 1941-1942. His health suffered severely at the hands his captors. (Later he died in 1947, but not before he became a international spokesman and denouncer of the Japanese brutality of World War II). Obviously a man which could not be allowed to become a political pawn of the Japanese government. To insure his physical health during his liberation, Dr. Gardiner and his wife Garnett were allowed to accompany the diplomat, and soon all escaped from China.

As the steamer left the mystical mecca of Shanghai, now a barbed wire shrouded containment camp, Garnett stood on the deck in tears, knowing they would not be returning anytime soon. In a letter posted to her mother she said, "The Paris of the East has deteriorated from a fascinating thriving city into a dreary dismal, virtual concentration camp". After reaching the United States, Garnett spent a majority of time on the lecture circuit, speaking about her experience in Shanghai. During this time she and the doctor grew apart, it is said partly because he did not desire children. Soon after, it is said Garnett met the dashingly attractive Baron Constantine (Steno) Stackelberg at a Washington D.C. luncheon. However, Garnett herself related a quite a different story to a friend and business associate many years later. The Baroness said she was enroute to a speaking engagement, "chewing gum, like a teenager", this always helped her relax before her taxing schedule of lectures. As she stepped out of the taxi cab, Garnett literally bumped into the Baron, "it was love at first sight", she said. Her son Sandy, states the location must have been the British Embassy. During this time the Baron was involved in state work in Washington. In an interview with the Baroness Stackelberg, she told me, "Steno knew Jack Frye, long before I came on the scene". It is thought he may have known Helen Vanderbilt Frye, as well. They all four became wonderful friends, and the Baron soon became an employee of Transcontinental and Western Air, (TWA).

During the 1940's, Helen and Jack were in Washington regularly politicking for TWA. Helen found a wonderful old estate- (the Doubleday Mansion), now called the Cedars, in the Arlington area of Virginia. She hired a lovely and very beautiful woman to be the chef for the mansion. Thus, Evangeline Brown and her husband Aubrey, came to work for the Fryes as caretakers, moving into the 70 acre estate with a number of other employees. Aubrey and Evangeline were said to be the very first black employees ever hired by TWA! Helen and Evangeline soon became fast friends. They not only bought all the furnishings for the estate, but Jack and Helen were thrilled at what a world class chef Evangeline proved to be. At about this time Helen was thrilled to hear that the Baroness was pregnant. A child was born and named Charles Alexander. But "Sandy" as they called him was a very large baby, and the Baroness had a difficult recovery and wasn't too keen on hospital food. Helen, in visiting the Baroness at the hospital was alarmed in seeing her dear friend slipping away. Suddenly, she got an idea! She went home to Hillcrest Farm and asked her cook, Evangeline, to make the Baroness some of her wonderful homemade chicken soup, of which they took to Garnett. This is the first time that Evangeline met the Baroness, and they soon too became close friends. The circle was now closed with Evangeline becoming the third member. Garnett loved the soup and after dining on a fair amount of the healing "elixir" she made a complete recovery. Helen and Evangeline helped the Baroness pack her things and sprung her from the dismal place. Evangeline has the current reputation as having been one of the finest chefs in Washington D.C., having cooked regularly for several Presidents and political celebrities.

The Baron was instrumental in helping secure the oversea routes for TWA with his diplomatic and family connections. One invaluable relative was his cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy (Governor) to India. The Baron was raised in the court of the last Czar of Russia, (Nicholas II), where his father served as the Master of Ceremonies. Another connection is the royal family of Great Britain and a cousin, HRH Prince Charles. The TWA routes were eventually secured and TWA became the reining airline of the world much to the chagrin of Juan Tripp, president of Pan American Airways. At this point Jack, weary of the mismanagement the largest TWA stockholder Howard Hughes exerted on the company, decided to resign. Jack always felt at that time Howard was no longer mentally capable of rational decisions. This stemmed from the recent, near fatal accident Howard had in Beverly Hills, (1946). The injuries he sustained led him to become addicted to powerful painkillers for the rest of his life. Concerned about his two friends, Steno and Aubrey, Jack Frye discreetly advised them of his plans and encouraged them to resign from TWA, as well. They both complied and all men went on to other careers. Throughout the years the women like sisters, all married to men like brothers, kept in touch until death tore them apart. First, Jack in 1959, Helen, in 1979, Steno, in 1989, Aubrey, in 2000, and now Garnett, in 2005. For further reading please see this newspaper article! By visiting this next link you can view a lovely memorial site for Garnett Stackelberg.

When Helen Varner Vanderbilt Frye died in 1979, a call was put through to Evangeline in Washington D.C. The news so overwhelmed Mrs. Brown, that her son Aubrey Jr., was put upon to make the dreaded call to the Stackelberg residence. Garnett came to the phone, "she took the news unusually well, and seemed rather stoic" said Aubrey Jr., in a recent interview, "it concerned me, as it was unlike the Baroness." Later, worriedly he called the Stackelberg residence to make sure the Baroness was really O.K. This time Garnett's husband Steno answered the phone, gravely he conveyed to Aubrey Jr. that Garnett was not receiving calls or guests. He continued, stating the Baroness was so overwhelmed with grief in hearing of Helen's death that she had retired in seclusion to her bedroom. As Aubrey Jr. had suspected, the Baroness was too much of a lady to show her emotions, bravely coping with her dear friend's death she succumbed to the emptiness in silence and privacy. She would always take comfort in the fact that she and Helen had been like sisters for over 40 years.

The Baron Stackelberg, and his wife the Baroness Stackelberg
in front of a portrait of Garnett. Courtesy Sandy von Stackelberg

Garnett Butler Gardiner shown above in Shanghai, with her chauffeur and a Japanese guard in the early 1940's. Behind Mrs. Gardiner, you can see barricades and rolls of barbed wire. It is assumed these barricades divided up Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. Courtesy Sandy von Stackelberg

Now we explore an interesting story, as related by various sources in interviews. However, I have had no luck documenting the information. The last time I spoke to the late Baroness Stackelberg, she related how Jack Frye had liberated her husband from overseas, in the war years. In her words, "Jack flew him out, as the Communists were killing off all the free-thinking wealthy families. They didn't want free thought". She said the Stackelberg family would forever be grateful to Jack Frye, and TWA. In closing she stated, "Jack Frye had a plane named after him in some fashion, that went behind enemy lines". As to the latter, the Baroness was unable to recall the details. Garnett told me the last time she visited Helen was when she flew out to Sedona on a private plane belonging to a lady friend. She clearly remembered the Wings of the Wind, and the magnificent views.

I have heard that Jack was involved with several secret operations before and during World War II. Perhaps she was referring to some code name for a rescue operation. Either way the story has been related by Jack's last wife, Nevada Smith Frye, Jack's daughter, Nev Frye, and Evangeline and Aubrey Brown. Because the Baroness is now gone, I am unable to follow up and derive more information. However, the biggest mystery is that Garnett's son Sandy says he has never heard the story. He is totally puzzled. So alas, we will never know what really happened, or what it all means. If anyone reading this has any clue. please E-Mail me.

Information for this article came from a variety of sources: Garnett Stackelberg and her son Sandy, Evangeline and Aubrey Brown, Marlys Chartel, Carol Kender, and Nevajac Frye. Many thanks to all for your generous help! Painstaking efforts have been made to assure this article is as accurate as possible. If you have any details to add please contact admin@sedonalegendhelenfrye.com

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Helen Vanderbilt Frye, the Baroness Garnett Stackelberg, and Evangeline Brown.

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