Audrey Munson

	Audrey Munson
	; Munson with her cat Buzzer in 1915.
Birth:	8 June 1891; Rochester, New York, USA
Death:	20 February 1996; Ogdensburg, New York, USA
Age:	104 years, 257 days
Country:	USA
	Centenarian

Audrey Marie Munson (8 June 1891 – 20 February 1996) was an American model and actress from the silent film era, considered to be "America's first supermodel".

Biography[]

Early life[]

Audrey Munson was born on June 8, 1891 in Rochester, New York, USA to Edgar Munson (1857–1945) and Katherine "Kittie" Mahaney (1863–1958). Her father was from Mexico, New York, and she later lived there. Her parents divorced when she was eight, and Audrey and her mother moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

Modeling career[]

As a young woman, she was a highly prolific model, with her first acknowledged credit being a marble statuary called Three Graces, which was unveiled in the new Grand Ballroom at the Hotel Astor in Times Square in September 1909. She posed for all three graces. Soon after, and for the next decade, Munson became the model of choice for the first tier of American sculptors, posing for a long list of freestanding statuary, monuments, and allegorical architectural sculpture on state capitols and other major public buildings.

Acting career[]

Due to her newfound success as a model, she began a successful career as a silent film actress. Her first role was in the 1915 film Inspiration, where she appeared fully naked in a story of a sculptor's model, making her one of the first people to appear nude in a mainstream film. The film was released uncensored, becoming a box office success. Following her success with Inspiration, she would appear in a few other films throughout the latter half of the 1910s, including Purity, which was scrutinized by the National Board of Review due to her nudity.

Later life[]

On June 8, 1931, her mother petitioned a judge to commit her to a mental asylum. The Oswego County judge ordered Munson be admitted into a psychiatric facility for treatment. She remained in the St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane in Ogdensburg, where she was treated for depression and schizophrenia, for 65 years, until her death at the age of 104. She had no visitors at the asylum for over 25 years after her mother died in 1958, but she was rediscovered there by a half-niece, Darlene Bradley, in 1984, when Munson was 93. In the mid-1980s, Munson, in her mid-90s, was moved to a nursing home in Massena, New York, as the original hospital closed, however, she would often escape to a nearby bar, with employees in the nursing home having to find her. As a result, she was moved back to the new mental institution. By the time she turned 100, she had no teeth and lost much of her hearing but was otherwise in good health. Shortly after her 100th birthday, Munson broke a hip.

Munson died on February 20, 1996, at the age of 104. She was buried at New Haven Cemetery in New Haven, New York and she received a headstone on her grave on June 8, 2016, 20 years after her death and on what would have been her 125th birthday.