Falling Stars!

Margaux Hemingway

     This article is the result of 8 years of reflection on the life of Margaux Hemingway, following the television program called "Biography" that aired, the year following Margaux's death. It was composed after seeking the LORD for almost 1 month. I am someone who by the grace and mercy of God has survived alcohol and drug addiction, clinical depression, and a motorcycle accident that left me paralyzed from my chest down. Remarkably, God is using all of this, for His glory. And He is speaking to those of us who adore the prosperous and beautiful people who we find in the American limelight today, and in years gone by. To those who survived Margaux, and had the privilege to know and love the beautiful person that she was - know that you were all blessed with the bright, shooting star that she was in your lives. It has been said that nothing dies without giving birth to something else. We must die to the flesh (our sinful, self-will) and be reborn (resurrected) in the Spirit: Jesus said, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for [M]y sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." - Mark 8:35 (KJV)

     She was born on February 19, 1955. And as a youngster I associated Margaux Hemingway with that deep, smokey, raspy, voice of hers. It (that voice) was so different from the voice of the supermodels that followed in the wake of her amazing success. That "trademark" voice...

     On April 20, 1997, I happened to be watching the Arts & Entertainment cable channel at my home, and the program called Biography proceeded to tell the story of the life and death of the famous supermodel, actress, spokesperson and adventuress: Margaux Hemingway. Margaux was larger than life: She stood six feet tall in her bare feet - 5' 12" she would say, and she spoke, smiled, and laughed with an innocence that was quite unusual for the world of high fashion modeling. She started right at the top with the first million-dollar contract ever awarded a model. She wasn't even out of high school. She asked for none of it. She was just a wide-eyed bronc-riding speed-skiing adventure-loving kid from Idaho who was spotted by Errol Wetson, an entrepreneur who became her first husband, who knew someone who knew people. "No one", her father said, "could take a bad picture of her." She seemed to remain a girl at heart - always looking for a way to have fun and entertain her friends. And it seemed that her friends were her life and her lifeline.[1]

     Margaux experienced tragedy from a young age. Her famous grandfather, author Ernest Hemingway, took his own life when she was just 6 years old. She developed the disease of epilepsy when she was 7. This and the fact that the Hemingway family lost a child shortly after it was born - so Margaux and her parents may have been distanced from each other due to the fear of the pain of bonding to another child, only to lose it as happened with the one before. She (Margaux) was also dyslexic (a learning disability) and inherited the dreaded depression and drug and alcohol addictions that plagued her grandfather, Ernest.

     The Hemingways were people of action, and this made it more difficult for Margaux to face the demons (inner weaknesses and generational curses) that plagued her for most of her life. She also claimed to have been molested by her Godfather, around the point that she was entering her teen-age years. But Margaux always maintained a brave face. If she was feeling down or inadequate with herself or her surroundings - she would compensate with drink - or disappear to be alone with her feelings. She had difficulty dealing with them - like the rest of the Hemingway family - she was "a person of action, not introspection". Even so, after she sought treatment for her drug and alcohol addictions at the Betty Ford clinic in 1988, she became a spokesperson for the epilepsy foundation and outspoken for a treatment program that targeted the addictions and behaviors that had caused her, as she said, to lose years of her life.

     As you may have gathered, I became a fan of Margaux Hemingway's, but only later in my life - after her death. From the first time I viewed her life and death story on "Biography", I experienced overwhelming emotion as the narrator of the program shared the life and death of Miss Margaux, and the camera depicted moments of her life - both the highest and best - and the lowest and worst. She was an amazing lady with an incredible amount of energy and zest for life. Because she was genuine, the people who knew her loved her. I began to feel a love for Margaux too. It was a very unusual feeling - as if I did know her as a close friend and even my own family member, as in a beloved sister. I had become "mesmerized" with all that was Margaux. Both with the glamourous model and socialite that she became, and the crusader and fighter against the things that plagued her life, and the lives of others, in this world.

     Because Margaux Hemingway had experienced such success at a young age (she turned the modeling world upside down when she signed the contract to become the million-dollar "Charlie" (perfume) girl, with Faberge', when she was 19 years old. The failure to maintain the tremendous success that she experienced must have been an equally heavy burden. She fought great adversity for many years, but later in life was able to find what was deemed socially as well as personally meaningful work: She said that it made "perfect sense" that she was to be the host for the "Wild Guide" television series that featured and brought attention to endangered species. This demonstrated her great desire to give and to receive love - to be needed in this life. She felt that working to protect animals gave meaning to her life. Margaux was so hungry to connect to others and to find peace and love in her heart. As her friends have said, this spiritual appetite made her eager to embrace what religion and spiritual guidance she was offered. She found friends at the Agape Church of Religious Science. She also journeyed to India to seek guidance from spiritual leaders, there. It was reported by friends that it was at this time that she was given what was likely a psychedelic drug, and she suffered a great mental, emotional, as well as spiritual setback at that time. Her family later discovered her in the state of Oregon and placed her in a mental institution for a month of observation. She seemed to have made a full recovery. But on the 1st of July, 1996, her body was discovered in her Santa Monica apartment. The coroner's report ascribed her death to "acute phenobarbital intoxication" (phenobarbital is a medication used to treat epilepsy): a suicide.[1]

     On July 6, 1996, her ashes were buried in Ketchum, Idaho, in the shadow of a memorial to her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. Like her famous forebear, Margaux Hemingway took her own life--the fifth to do so in four generations of Hemingways, and on the eve of the thirty-fifth anniversary of her grandfather's death. Her many friends have publicly voiced their disbelief (This was also very difficult for me to accept). They contend that any overdose had to have been accidental; that she took the drug for her epilepsy, and that it would be just like Margaux to forget she had taken one dose and then down another. But the bottle of drugs found by her bedside was not prescribed. And the coroner's report put her body's level of the drug well beyond the therapeutic range.[1]

     I had a younger brother, named Russell, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1985. He was drunk on alcohol and riding at an excessive rate of speed shortly before his life ended. He was diagnosed as being brain dead due to excessive swelling inside the skull. This was five days after he made a suicide run on his motorbike. The hardest part to look at is that he was not in the center of God's will for his life when he died [he was not living for God through Jesus Christ our LORD - or God through him and his life - at the point of His death]. It hurts to think about this, but his chances for spending eternity with God don't look very good, for this reason. This is truth, "...Straight and narrow (difficult) is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it." - Matthew 7:14

     I have asked myself, how is it that a person that was so hungry to find something greater than herself - to find God - did not (did not walk with Him). I believe that all of us are given and opportunity to receive the love and the redemption from our sinful nature that is only available through the God-man - the sole mediator between God and man - the Saviour & Messiah, Jesus Christ. Regrettably, Margaux - like my younger brother - did not accept and honor the Word of God (Jesus Christ) into and through her life. They died in the condition of being out of God's will for their life.

     The purpose of this article to help those who are mesmerized and hypnotized - as I was - by famous and glamourous people such as the actress and celebrity Margaux Hemingway. This is a type of idolatry: the worship of another person who has gained our attention through demonic spirits. These evil, disembodied spirits are employed by Satan himself, to help facilitate the power that leads to popularity that draws us to the person (object) through "the lust of the flesh". The result is Satanic slavery - which can be done through fame (being recognized - gaining recognition and popularity from this world system), overt sexuality (a spirit of lust), music (a very powerful medium for changing our thoughts and emotions), and riches (the lust for possessions).

     Don't be duped by the devil. You have experienced these insights through an humble servant of the LORD Jesus Christ. God became man, so that He (Jesus) could represent both God and man - reconciling them to each other - through the love and power of His Cross. The one whose atoning blood sacrifice opened the way for us to follow Him and obey Him - whereby sin is eradicated in our lives through our walk of obedience. He (Jesus) is the only way to the Father in heaven. He is the Blessed Hope for our eternal redemption. Choose Him, now. Choose life for yourself and for your children. Choose this day who you will serve. And God bless your heart and life as you do.

     [Brother] Alan Richardson 7/10/05

     [1]Excerpt from the article "What Killed Margaux Hemingway?" by Marano, Hara Estroff - Publication Date: Dec 96

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