A terrible sad news was released today as Brooke Shields said her final farewell to her beloved mother Terri Shields who passed away on October 3, at the age of 79.
47-year-old Brooke Shields’ mother was heavily criticized in 1978 for her decision to let her daughter Brooke who was 12 at the time to portrayed a child prostitute in Pretty Baby, two years later all eyes were on her when her daughter became the spokes model for Calvin Klein jeans in that controversial ad, and the next year a 15-year-old Brooke appeared in The Blue Lagoon, media couldn’t stop talking about Terri Shields’s poor decision as a mother, a mother who had already said she was committed to make her daughter a Hollywood star.
“She’s the most beautiful child and I’m going to help her with her career.”
Terri Shields came from a Welsh, German, Irish and Scottish descent she was born Theresia Anna Lilian Maria Schmon on August 1, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey to Theresa Dollinger and John Schmon.
In 1964 Teri Shields got married to Francis Alexander Shields who she met while she was working as a cosmetics saleswoman, he once an executive at Revlon son of top ranking tennis player Francis Xavier Alexander Sr.and of the Italian Princess Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, they welcomed their only daughter Brooke Christa Shields on May 31, 1965, sadly Teri and Francis got divorce on October 1965.
Francis then got married to Diana “Didi” Lippert with whom he had three more daughters Marina, Olympia and Christina, Mr. Shields died in 2003 to prostate cancer at the age of 61.
As for Teri Shields, the former model, hairstylist, a makeup artist for Lord & Taylor, and actress who once starred along her daughter in Wanda Nevada in 1979, Endless Love in 1981, Sahara in 1983 and Backstreet dreams in 1990, also became involved in the production of some of Brooke’s films such as Sahara and Brenda Starr. Teri was Brooke’s manager until 1995, after that she lived at her home in Haworth, N.J.
But that changed in 2009 when she became ill with dementia and had to be moved to a hospice home, Teri was 75. Brooke released the news about her mom’s illness and her decision to take her to a nursing home something that she described as one of the most difficult and hard decision she had to take.
“a very difficult decision. It is one of the most difficult experiences you can go through as a son or daughter.”
Teri never remarried, she died in Manhattan on October 31, 2012 at the age of 75.
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