A Quiz: Lady Rancher Edition

A Female Rancher in Central America, 1990; Photograph by Lord Snowdon

The woman in the above photograph had long ago retired to a remote ranch in Central America when she posed for Lord Snowdon in the above photograph. In her twilight years, she was content but struggled to make ends meet. At her lowest point, she lacked even a telephone. It was a far cry from her heyday, when she was a dazzling international star, a household name in a profession that does not produce so many. Who was she?

HINT: It might be said that this woman, born Peggy Hookham, left a garden to live on a ranch. 

​The answer is after the JUMP.

​Dame Margot Fonteyn already had a long career at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House when, in 1961, Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Soviet Union and joined her company, the Royal Ballet. She had thought of retiring, but, though nearly two decades Nureyev's senior, she instead became his partner. The resulting fanfare made international superstars of them both. 

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in "Gisele"

"Autobiography" by Margot Fonteyn

Fonteyn was by then long-married to Panamanian diplomat and politician Roberto "Tito" Arias, which is how she found herself living on a ranch in Panama in her retirement. They fell in love when both were only eighteen but waited nearly two decades to marry. Naysayers claimed he was unworthy of her, but she adored him.

By their retirement years, her love for Arias was put to the test. He had become a paraplegic, the result of a dispute that erupted in gunfire. Though born into a prominent Panamanian family, he was near destitute due to onerous medical bills and physical rehabilitation fees. Aside from the money she made writing books about her career in ballet, she was similarly lacking in income.

However, it was not as bad for her as it seems. Fonteyn understood it was Arias who "rescued [her] human heart trapped inside a ballerina." Her "need to love far outweighed [her] need to be loved" by adoring fans. Per Fonteyn's friend Colette Clark: “People said it was such a tragedy, his being shot. Of course it wasn't a tragedy, because she got what she wanted. Someone to look after and love and lavish with all the devotion and strength of her marvelous character."

Arias died in November 1989, prompting Fonteyn to conclude, "It's not death I'm afraid of. It's living too long." She had little to fear. Lord Snowdon photographed Fonteyn not long after Arias passed away, and just in time. Fonteyn died in early 1991, surviving her husband by one year and a few months.

Note. Do not consider this a complete picture of the Tito Arias, Margot Fonteyn, and their complicated marriage. For her, love conquered all. Yet, Tito Arias's "all" was rather too much. 

See Also: Andy Warhol Problems, The Ballet Edition

Image Credit: Public Appearances, 1987-1991 and Nureyev, An Autobiography