James Paul Donahue Jr.
James Paul "Jimmy" Donahue Jr. was an heir to the Woolworth estate and a noted New York City socialite.Early life
Jimmy Donahue was the second son of James Paul Donahue, the scion of an Irish American family which had made a fortune in the fat rendering business, by his wife Jessie Woolworth Donahue, one of the three daughters of Frank Winfield Woolworth, founder of the Woolworth retail chain. His older brother was Woolworth Donahue.
Donahue was a nephew of Edna Woolworth, a wealthy socialite and a nephew by marriage of Franklyn Laws Hutton, a co-founder of the brokerage firm E. F. Hutton & Co. He was also the first cousin and confidante of the American socialite Barbara Hutton,
Donahue was a high school dropout. He initially attended the Hun School at Princeton, NJ, and after his parents were advised to remove him from there, he was shifted to Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. However, he was expelled from that school at age 17. Following his expulsion from Choate he took tap dance lessons with the tap dance master Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.Career
Having been born into a wealthy family, Donahue never felt the need to earn a living, and indeed he lived lavishly, travelling the world with a valet in tow and staying at the most expensive hotels. He was known within his circle by the nickname "Jeem". A playboy by nature, he was a gay man although he claimed he had had a four-year affair with Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, the wife of the Duke of Windsor and former King Edward VIII. This claim is endorsed by Lady Pamela Hicks, daughter of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and a cousin of the Duke of Windsor.
He is buried in the Woolworth Family Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, having died in 1966 at the age of 51.
