Readers of the Brooklyn/Long Island edition of the Sunday Mirror on April 14 read about a Long Island horsewoman and heiress who was in Reno getting a divorce from the highway patrolmen she had wed ten years earlier.The unlikely romance was tabloid fodder back when it was announced. Beatrix Blackwell was heir to a fortune, tracing back in part to her great-great-grandfather who had owned Blackwell's Island, later known as Welfare Island, in the East River. Before her marriage, she had been known mostly for the many blue ribbons she had won at horse shows. The man who had won her heart was state trooper Sam Wechsler, dubbed the "Adonis of the Highways" by the press. It was assumed widely that they had met during a traffic stop on Grand Central Parkway in Queens, part of his beat, but Beatrix said they had been introduced at a party in Palm Beach. Wonder what a New York traffic cop was doing hobnobbing with the elite in exclusive Palm Beach?
The couple eloped, keeping their marriage a secret for months from all but their closest friends, while setting up home in Merrick, Long Island. Wechsler continued his police duties. Mrs. Wechsler stopped competing in horse shows. When the news got out the couple were all over the press.
The Wechslers had a child, Margaretta, who was 8 at this time. Wechsler had returned in the Fall from three years in the Marines. As was the case with many marriages, the attachment did not survive the wartime separation. In January, Beatrix left her daughter with her grandparents and headed to Reno to begin her residence period in order to file for a Nevada divorce. The proceedings were delayed by Wechsler's failure to arrange for legal representation. Finally the heiress won an uncontested divorce in a closed door hearing.