Grace Livingstone Casanova

Father: Frank Hegger (1847- 1903)
Mother: Maude (Gadd) Hegger (1860- after 1930)

Spouse 1: Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) m. 15 Apr 1914 in New York, NY (divorced 1928)
Son: Wells Lewis (1917–1944)

Spouse 2: Telesforo Casanova de Ojea (22 May 1893 Rua De Valdeorras, Spain - Oct 1981 New York, NY) son of Leopoldo and Ramona Ojea Casanova m. 7 Feb 1933 in New York, NY

GRACE H. L. CASANOVA, 93; AUTHOR AND FIRST WIFE OF SINCLAIR LEWIS
By Alfred E. Clark

The New York Times
March 29, 1981, Section 1, Page 36

Grace Hegger Lewis Casanova, the first wife of Sinclair Lewis, the American author and Nobel Prize winner, died Friday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness. She was 93 years old.

She married Mr. Lewis in 1914, and in a biographical portrait of the writer entitled With Love From Gracie, she recounted their years together until 1925, when they separated. His book Main Street, a great success in 1920, was followed by Babbitt (1922) and Arrowsmith (1925).

Mrs. Casanova was also the author of Half a Loaf, a novel published in 1931. It was her first such work, and she said it was based on her life with Mr. Lewis.

In an article for The New York Times Magazine in July 1960, entitled, When Lewis Walked Down Main Street, she recalled their first visit to Sauk Centre, Minn., his hometown, in 1916. She told of meeting his family and neighbors and of visiting the community in a Model-T Ford.

In a Times book review, Charles Poore said of With Love From Gracie that it runs as swiftly and revealing as a Lewis novel. Her marriage to Mr. Lewis ended in divorce in 1928. They had a son, Wells Lewis, an Army lieutenant who was killed in action in France in World War II.

Mr. Lewis's second wife, the columnist Dorothy Thompson, divorced him in 1942. He died in Rome in 1951. Mrs. Casanova was born in New York City, where her father operated an art gallery on lower Fifth Avenue. She became a staff writer for Vogue magazine and later served as a beauty consultant for Elizabeth Arden. She also was president of the women's auxiliary of Goldwater Memorial Hospital when it was situated on Welfare Island.

Mrs. Casanova is survived by her second husband, Telesforo Casanova, a stockbroker whom she married in 1933.