TRAGEDY AT NICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20841, 7 April 1931, Page 9

TRAGEDY AT NICE.

MRS. TOWNSEND'S CAREER. A BEAUTY OF THE RIVIERA. NICE. April 2. Mrs. Mary Townsend, formerly of Sydney, who was killed through a fall over the cliffs near Monaco in her motor-car, was one of the beauties of the Rivieia. Mrs. Townsend left a farewell note in which she referred to her love for her baby and asked her husband to look after her mother. The police have no doubt that she committed suicide. A witness declares that he saw her talking to herself while she was driving. Deceased's friends recall details of her life, including the winning of a beauty prize. She then made a bid for film fame, but suffered a long illness caused by a bite from a lion in a zoo at a rehearsal. While Mrs. Townsend was engaged in cinema work she met- a. Baltimoie millionaire, whom shs sued for breach of promise subsequently. She was married three times. First, in her teens, to Colonel Joseph Alex Davis, at Ridgewater, Connecticut. This union was dissolved. Then she married Mr. Donald Grafton, of Pittsburg, but left him after claiming to have discovered that he was already married. This marriage was annulled finally in 1925. Deceased's last husband, Mr. Townsend, of Sydney, made a fortune on Wall Street. She was not aware until she visited his Australian home that she had married one of the richest men in Australia. They lived happily .in one of the most beautiful villas of the Riviera.