Personal Life
Connolly was married three times. His first wife Jean Bakewell (1910–1950) left him in 1939, moving back to the United States. She later became the wife of Laurence Vail (former husband of Peggy Guggenheim and Kay Boyle) but, following years of health problems, died of a stroke while on a trip to Paris at the age of 39. Connolly married his second wife, Barbara Skelton, in 1950. His third wife, whom he married in 1959, was Deirdre Craven, a granddaughter of James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, by whom he had two children later in life. After Connolly's death in 1974 she married Peter Levi.
In 1967 Connolly settled in Eastbourne, to the amusement of Beaton who suggested he was lured back by the cakes they had enjoyed in school outings to the town. He died suddenly at Eastbourne in 1974, having continued to the end as a Sunday Times journalist.
Since 1976, Connolly's papers and personal library of over 8,000 books have been housed at the University of Tulsa.
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