Lady Nancy Keith; Admired on 2 Coasts for Her Beauty

Lady Nancy Keith, a socialite known in the fashionable circles of New York and Los Angeles for her beauty, died Friday of heart failure at New York Hospital. She was 73.

Lady Keith, known to her friends as Slim, had just finished her memoirs, “Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life,” which will be published later this year.

Her wit and charm made her a sought-after guest in New York and Hollywood. She counted among her close friends Ernest Hemingway, the Selznicks, Mike Nichols and Jerome Robbins.

Truman Capote used to be one of her closest friends, and dubbed her “Big Mama.” But after he wrote “Answered Prayers,” an article satirizing New York society, Keith never spoke to him again.

She was named Mary Raye Gross at her birth in 1916 in Salinas, Calif., but her mother changed her name to Nancy.

Though she grew into the type of beauty sought in Hollywood, Keith never appeared in a film. She worked briefly as a screenwriter.

Gary Cooper gave her away at her 1941 wedding to director and producer Howard Hawks.

In 1946, “Slim” Hawks was named the best-dressed woman of the year by 150 fashion editors. The Duchess of Windsor was runner-up.

Hollywood credited her with finding and promoting Lauren Bacall, a model, and other actresses whose slender good looks recalled Keith’s.

Bacall’s character, “Slim,” opposite Humphrey Bogart in Hawks’ “To Have and Have Not” was reportedly named for Lady Keith.

She divorced Hawks in 1949 and two days later married Leland Hayward, the movie and theatrical producer. They were divorced in 1959 and three years later she married the British merchant banker Lord Kenneth Keith, from whom she acquired her title. They were divorced in 1972.

She is survived by a daughter, Kitty Hawks, and a sister, Theodora Andersen of Burlingame.