Jacqueline Kimberly

Jacqueline Kimberly, high-profile divorcée By Kevin Deutsch, and Tim O'Meilia
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 13, 2006

Jacqueline Kimberly, a key player in two of the most sensational Palm Beach divorces of the 1980s, shot herself to death New Year's Day outside her apartment in Wilton Manors in Broward County, police said. She was 55.

Mrs. Kimberly apparently shot herself in the chest while sitting inside a vehicle in the 2600 block of Northeast Eighth Avenue, right in front of her building, said Wilton Manors police Sgt. Richard Wiley . She left behind a note saying she was "depressed over the recent death of a friend," Wiley said. Her longtime friend and roommate Susan Lynch died July 4.

Mrs. Kimberly, the jet-setting wife of Kleenex heir James Kimberly, became tabloid fodder in 1982 during the celebrated divorce trial of Roxanne Pulitzer and publishing heir Herbert "Peter" Pulitzer.

The Pulitzers' custody battle over their twin sons spilled over with tales of cocaine-sniffing parties and adultery.

"You're disgusting," Mrs. Kimberly retorted in court when asked if she'd romped nude with Roxanne Pulitzer. She denied ever having an affair with Mrs. Pulitzer.

Mrs. Pulitzer immortalized the '80s Palm Beach lifestyle in her 1988 book The Prize Pulitzer, telling stories of "fishbowls of cocaine" and Christmas stockings stuffed with porn flicks. NBC made the book into a less-lurid TV movie in 1990. Then little-known actress Courteney Cox played Mrs. Kimberly.

Mrs. Kimberly and Mrs. Pulitzer had not spoken since the divorce, although they tried to connect in the last few months, Mrs. Pulitzer said from her home in Colorado. "We were very close friends for a long time. We accepted life for what it was. We were driven apart by circumstances," she said.

"It's hard to take in," she said of Mrs. Kimberly's death. "It's shocking and saddening. I've still not quite accepted it yet."

Born Roberta Jacqueline Trezise, she was 17 and a part-time receptionist at a Palm Beach art gallery when she met the silver-haired Kimberly at a party. He was 61 and the grandson of the founder of Kimberly Clark. He wore a solid-gold earring before it was fashionable, raced Ferraris and sport-fished around the world.

Two years later, in 1969, they were married, living on North Lake Way, and playing host to frequent house guest King Hussein of Jordan. Hussein was so appreciative of Mrs. Kimberly's hospitality that he bought her a Ferrari.

The couple nearly divorced in 1975. "Jim was in love. He didn't want to divorce her. I patched them up," said West Palm Beach lawyer Joe Farish, who represented Mrs. Pulitzer in her divorce.

"She was a very cordial, nice young lady in my presence," he said.

The patch didn't last. The Kimberlys' 1985 divorce brought the scandal sheets back to Palm Beach. She asked for $3,225 a month for food, $2,500 for clothes and $6,500 for leisure

"She is what he created," her lawyer, Jack Ackerman, said at the time, repeating a line Farish said about the Pulitzers.

But Kimberly claimed his $5 million fortune of 1969 had dwindled to less than $1 million. A judge held her to the $18,000 a year promised in a prenuptial agreement.

Kimberly later sold his home to Hussein, moved to Lake Clarke Shores and lived more frugally until his death in 1994.

Mrs. Kimberly, meanwhile, worked as a waitress in North Carolina, then returned to Florida, living briefly in Delray Beach. For more than a decade, she and Susan Lynch lived in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Lynch was the Kimberlys' house manager when they were married.