Virginia Fair Vanderbilt was an American socialite, hotel builder/owner, philanthropist, owner of Fair Stable, a Thoroughbred racehorse operation, and a member of the prominent Vanderbilt family.
Background
She was born on January 2, 1875 in San Francisco, California as Virginia Graham Fair to James Graham Fair, and his wife Theresa Rooney. Her father, James Graham Fair, was an Irish immigrant who made a fortune from mining the Comstock Lode and the Big Bonanza mine in Virginia City and Carson City, Nevada respectively.
Career
Her parents divorced when she was six. She was known throughout her life as "Birdie". On March 26, 1899, Virginia Graham Fair married William Kissam Vanderbilt II, a sportsman and president of the New York Central Railroad.
They settled in a mansion at 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City and had three children: Muriel (1902–1982), Consuelo (1903–1994) and William Kissam III (1907–1933).
After their separation, she continued to use the Vanderbilt name but also did much under her maiden name. She began dividing her time between homes in Manhattan, Jericho, Long Island and in her native California.
Her mansion at 60 East 93rd Street became the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations then part of the Lycée Français de New York until 2000 when it was sold to be converted back to a private residence. In 1910, Birdie Vanderbilt set up the Virginia Fair Legacy Fund that rebuilt and endowed the Holy Family Day Home, a Roman Catholic school residence for children in San Francisco that had been damaged by the 1906 earthquake.
Interested in horse racing herself, Birdie Vanderbilt established her own racing stable in the United States.
Named Fair Stable, she met with great success with the Thoroughbred Sarazen who earned back-to-back United States. Horse of the Year honors in 1924 and 1925 and would be inducted into the United States" National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 1933, tragedy struck her family again when her 26-year-old son, William Kissam Vanderbilt III, was killed in an automobile accident in South Carolina while driving home to New York City from his father"s Florida estate. She died in Manhattan from pneumonia on July 7, 1935.
She is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.