“King Lehr” and the Gilded Age

Elizabeth Wharton "Bessie" Drexel Lehr (April 22, 1868 - June 13, 1944) was a Manhattan socialite. She was also the author of two books: "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age (1935), which told the story of her unhappy 28-year marriage to American socialite Harry Lehr; and Turn of the World (1937), a semi-autobiographical history of American high society during the Gay Nineties up through the first World War.

Elizabeth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Lucy Wharton (1841-1912) and Joseph William Drexel, who was the son of Francis Martin Drexel, the immigrant ancestor of the Drexel banking family in the United States.

Elizabeth’s first marriage was to John Vinton Dahlgren I (1869-1899), a graduate from Georgetown University and the son of Admiral John Adolph Dahlgren (1809-1870). During this marriage, she made generous donations to Roman Catholic charities and to Georgetown University, including funds for the construction of Dahlgren Chapel

Following Dahlgren’s death, she married Henry Symes Lehr (1869-1929), aka Harry Lehr, in 1901. The Lehrs moved to Paris in 1915, where Elizabeth worked for the Red Cross, and remained there after World War I. In 1923 they purchased the Hôtel de Canvoie at 52, rue des Saints-Pères in the 7th arrondissement. Harry Lehr died in 1929.

In 1936, Elizabeth married John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies (1866-1944), a widower who had previously been married to Helen Vivien Gould (1893-1931).

Elizabeth died in the same year as her third husband at the Hotel Shelton and was buried in the Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University, which she and her first husband had built as a memorial to their son, Joseph Drexel Dahlgren, who died in infancy.