1972 Obituary of Consul Henry Leigh Hunt March 25, 2014

HENRY LEIGH HUNT

1886-1972

Henry Leigh Hunt, Age 43
Photo: Jonathan Warren Collection

The following is an exerpt from the obituary of Henry Leigh Hunt, Honorary Consul of Monaco in Las Vegas from 1956 to 1963.  It is believed to have been written the end of December, 1972.  

Henry Leigh Hunt, 86, who died Thursday at the American Hospital in Neuilly was a descendant of both John Adams and Daniel Boone.  During his long and adventurous life, he showed many of the characteristics of each.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he became a blood brother of the last monarch of China, hunted for many months with a renegade Assiniboine tribe in Canada, lived on a cotton plantation in the Sudan, captained the Yale polo team, was a mucker in a mine in Colorado, surveyed the Alaskan wilderness, learned gunfighting from the sheriff of El Paso, built a railroad in Brazil, was decorated by the French and American armies for his bravery in Belleau Wood, worked as a banker in Paris and as a real estate operator in Las Vegas.

The love of his life was the beautiful French poetess Louise de Vilmorin.  Although their marriage ended in divorce, they remained close and in 1962 he returned to France to be near her.  He spent his last years at Saint-Lambert-des-Bois near Paris, and it is there, in the graveyard of the little church he loved, that he will be buried at 11 AM Tuesday. He is survived by his sister, Mrs. Bayard Rives, and by his daughters, Jessie Wood, Alexandra Horsey and Helena Baxter, and by his twelve grandchildren.

He dearly loved a good meal, a good drink, a good story.  To the end, he always said, “I have lived a good life.”

Although the above obituary (provided by his descendants) was likely submitted to newspapers in New York and Las Vegas, it does not appear either ever printed it.  Given the exceptionally low profile and spectacular life of Henry Leigh Hunt, some speculate that the papers simply thought it too fantastic to believe.