May Bonfils Stanton

Mary Madeline "May" Bonfils Stanton (April 30, 1883 – March 11, 1962) was an American heiress and philanthropist. She and her younger sister, Helen Bonfils, succeeded their father, Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, as principal owners of The Denver Post. However, May's elopement at age 21 with a non-Catholic salesman had forged a rift in her relationship with her parents and sister that worsened when Helen inherited the majority of their parents' estates. Following a three-year legal battle over the inheritance, the sisters cut off all communication with each other. May married twice but did not have children. Living a reclusive life, she invested her fortune into building and furnishing her estate in Lakewood, Colorado – which included a mansion that was an exact replica of Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon château in Versailles – and into many philanthropic endeavors in the state of Colorado. The Bonfils–Stanton Foundation, established by her second husband after her death in 1962, continues to support the arts in Colorado. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.

Early life and family Mary Madeline "May" Bonfils was born in Troy, Missouri, to Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and his wife, Belle Barton Bonfils. She had one sister, Helen, six years her junior. In 1894 the family moved to Kansas where Frederick ran legal lotteries, and in 1895 to Denver, where Frederick and Harry Heye Tammen purchased a newspaper that they renamed The Denver Post. In Denver, Bonfils studied at St. Mary's Academy and the Wolcott School for Girls, an elite private girls' school. She went on to graduate from Brownell School for Girls in New York.

The Bonfils girls had a strict Catholic upbringing. Frederick was especially vigilant with his eldest daughter and warned both girls against dating younger men because they "were only out for their money". After Bonfils graduated from Brownell, Frederick escorted her to Europe, where she studied French, art, and music, and mastered both piano and music composition.

In 1904, at the age of 21, Bonfils eloped with Clyde V. Berryman, a non-Catholic sheet music salesman; they were married in a civil ceremony in Golden, Colorado. Frederick was outraged and threatened to halve her inheritance if she did not file for divorce. The elopement opened a rift between Bonfils and her parents and sister, which only worsened with time. Bonfils and Clyde lived in Omaha, Kansas City, Wichita, and California, returning to Denver in 1916, where they lived mostly separate lives. In 1934 Berryman left her for good, and in 1943 she obtained a "quickie divorce" in Reno, Nevada, on grounds of "cruelty, nonsupport, and desertion". In 1947 she filed for a second divorce in Colorado and had her maiden name restored, but her family never reconciled with her.

Estate and mansion Following the death of her father in 1933 and her mother in 1935, Bonfils was named the beneficiary of a trust that guaranteed her a $25,000 annual income. However, her sister Helen received the majority of the inheritance: $14 million from her father's estate, $10 million from her mother's estate, The Denver Post stock, and the family's Humboldt Street mansion. Bonfils sued her sister over the inheritance in a court trial that lasted three years. In the end, Bonfils was awarded $5 million cash from her mother's estate, some cash from her father's estate, 15% of The Denver Post stock, and of real estate in nearby Lakewood, Colorado. The court case caused an irreparable breach between the sisters, who stopped speaking to each other altogether. Helen, who became manager of The Denver Post, went so far as to order that Bonfils' name not be mentioned in the newspaper, "except for uncomplimentary remarks".

Bonfils lived alone and was rarely seen in public. She was known to be "devoutly religious". With her income from her Denver Post stock, she invested in blue chip stock and grew her fortune. She purchased properties adjacent to the of land she had inherited to create a estate that she called Belmar, combining the name of her mother Belle with her own name, Mary. The estate grounds included a manmade lake, Built in 1937 for more than $1 million, the white terra-cotta mansion was designed by noted Colorado architect Jacques Benedict. It contained a pink marble chapel where priests from the St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church of Denver held private masses for Bonfils, and a full-service dental clinic. the 34.4-carat Stotesbury Emerald; a diamond and emerald necklace weighing 153 carats purchased from the Maharajah of Indore; and a diamond, Burmese ruby, and platinum necklace valued at $800,000 in 2003. All the stones were removed from their settings when her jewelry was sold at auction after her death.

Near the end of her life, Bonfils and her second husband, Charles Stanton, founded the Belmar Development Company and formulated plans to establish the Belmar residential neighborhood and the Lakewood downtown district, including the Villa Italia Shopping Center, on part of the property. After Bonfils' death, Stanton donated portions of the estate toward the establishment of the Bonfils–Stanton Library, the Belmar Museum (later expanded into the Historical Belmar Village museum complex), Belmar Park, and the Lakewood Civic Center.

Second marriage Bonfils met Charles Edwin Stanton (1909–1987), In 2015 the Bonfils–Stanton Foundation redirected its focus to the arts, granting $3 million a year to orchestras, dance companies, art galleries, and startup arts organizations.

Bonfils Stanton was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.