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- New York Times
Jane Stanton Hitchcock, 78, Dies; Crime Novelist Who Mocked High Society
Jane Stanton Hitchcock, a daughter of privilege who skewered the foibles of her tribe in a series of addictive crime novels, and who then uncovered a real-life crime when her mother was swindled by her accountant, died on June 23 at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 78.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Kathy Rayner, a friend.
Ms. Hitchcock grew up at 10 Gracie Square, a blue-chip co-op on the East River that was once home to Gloria Vanderbilt, Brooke Astor and other Manhattan society figures. Her mother was Joan Stanton, a glamorous but chilly 1940s-era radio star famous for her role as Lois Lane on the radio version of 'The Adventures of Superman.' Her father, Arthur Stanton, who adopted her when she was 9, had made a fortune importing Volkswagen cars after World War II.
The Stantons were known for their elaborate parties, where Leonard Bernstein might be found at the piano. For Jane's 21st birthday, Neil Simon composed a sketch.
When she was 29, she married an heir of the wealthy industrialist and Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, William Mellon Hitchcock — who had earned a bit of notoriety when he rented his mansion in Millbrook, N.Y., to the psychedelic-drug guru Timothy Leary — mixing her newish money with his gilded-age wealth.
A tart observer and a professional wit, Ms. Hitchcock drew from her rarefied ecosystem in all her work, beginning with a series of wanly reviewed films and Off Broadway plays — and one London production, directed by Harold Pinter in 1990. It wasn't until she began mixing social satire with murder that she found her voice.
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