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Ninette Shumway (née Fraux)
Born: 9 June 1894 in Decazeville, France. Died: 1990.
Augustine Louise Hélène Fraux, nicknamed Ninette, was born in Decazeville, France on 9 June 1894 and died in 1990. At age 17, Ninette left the port in Le Havre, France and arrived in New York on 2 July 1911 aboard the La Trouraine, she was traveling under the name Augustine Fraux.
On 14 August 1915, she married Howard Crosby Shumway in Cook Co., Illinois. Ninette and Howard had one child, a son named Howard born on 17 July 1916 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her husband died that same year in a car crash. On her passport application of 28 February 1919 (Part 1, Part 2) she stated that she was widowed, a governess, she resided at 81 Sudbury Road and that she was returning to France to make it her home.
She met and became acquainted with Leah Hirsig while they were both crossing the Atlantic to London on the same ship. The recently widowed Ninette had previously been employed as a nursery governess and was looking for similar employment. When Leah joined Aleister Crowley in Paris at the end of 1919 she was pregnant with his child and already had a son named Hansi. Since Leah was pregnant, it was arranged that Ninette would come to work and live with Crowley and Leah. A house was rented at 11-bis rue de Neuville, Fontainebleau, France.
Ninette was given the magical name Cyprus and her son was dubbed Hermes by Crowley. By January 1920 they were all living in the Fontainebleau house.
Ninette later gave birth to a daughter by Aleister Crowley on 26 November 1920, Astarte Lulu Panthea. Astarte was raised in the USA from 1931 by Ninette's older sister Helen Fraux. Astarte has four children including jazz pianist Eric Muhler.
Ninette had a third child named Isabella. It is uncertain if Crowley was the father as Ninette was sleeping with both Crowley and Baron Carlos La Calce at the time she was conceived at the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Italy. Isabella was also known as Mimi. |
Ninette and Howard Shumway 28 February 1919
Painting of Ninette by Aleister Crowley |
