Alexandre, Jerome Jr. (1920–1959)

1920–1959

Parents: Jerome Alexandre (1886–1925) and Helene Gertrude Jones (1893–1935).

Spouse: Wanda Lucille Bright (1921–1991).

Children: Wanda Helene Alexandre (1939–2013), Jerome Alexandre (1940–2009), Suzanne Alexandre (1943– ), and Stephanie Ann Alexandre (1947–1998).

Kinship: Second cousin once removed of the post–World War II Smith generation.

Early Life

Jerome Alexandre Jr. was born in 1920, the son of Jerome Alexandre and Helene Gertrude Jones. His father’s death in 1925 left him an orphan at a young age, and he was raised primarily by his half-sister Nathalie Alexandre Biddle. He inherited a portion of his grandfather’s fortune, held in trust until his twenty-first birthday.

Youth and Restlessness

Jerome inherited the impulsive temperament of his father and grandfather. In 1936, at age sixteen, he ran away from the Webb School in Claremont, California, leaving behind a note telling his sister to sell his car—an unusual possession for a teenager during the Depression. His disappearance caused considerable alarm until he returned safely to Albuquerque. Two years later, in 1938, he was briefly in trouble for damaging municipal property when “swinging on a ground wire” caused an electric light to break; he told police he was “ready to settle with the city.”

Early Adulthood and Marriage

By May 1940, he was living in Santa Barbara, California, working at a filling station and studying photography. Although he had not yet received his inheritance of $139,118 (about $1 million in 2024 dollars), the court released $1,500 to him, noting that he was already married and had a child.

Military Service

In March 1942, Alexandre, then twenty-one and a licensed private pilot, flew from Albuquerque to San Antonio with his friend Kenneth M. Reid to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. A newspaper photograph from the time shows the two young men standing beside their plane under the headline “They Flew to Fly.” He reported for duty as a lieutenant to Randolph Air Field, Texas, in June 1944.

Later Life and Business

After the war, Alexandre returned to New Mexico, where he operated various small businesses. In 1954 he moved to Farmington and established a bottling works, which he managed successfully for several years.

Death

Despite his outward stability, Alexandre struggled with depression. On April 24, 1959, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head; the inquest ruled his death a suicide. He was thirty-eight years old. His life, like that of his father, reflected both the privileges and the burdens of a family whose fortune and temperament combined ambition, independence, and tragedy.