Death
Pfeiffer spent the rest of her life in Key West with frequent visits to California until her death on October 1, 1951. Her death was first attributed to shock related to her son Gregory's arrest and a subsequent phone call from Ernest that same day. Gregory had been arrested earlier in that day as a male who was caught entering a woman's restroom in a theater. Years later, Gregory became a medical doctor and interpreted the autopsy report and claimed that Pauline died due to a pheochromocytoma tumor on her adrenal gland. His theory was that the phone call from Ernest caused the tumor to secrete excessive adrenalin and then stop. The resultant change in blood pressure caused the shock that killed her.
Read more about this topic: Pauline Pfeiffer
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.”
—Sophocles (497406/5 B.C.)
“I would not that death should take me asleep. I would not have him meerly seise me, and onely declare me to be dead, but win me, and overcome me. When I must shipwrack, I would do it in a sea, where mine impotencie might have some excuse; not in a sullen weedy lake, where I could not have so much as exercise for my swimming.”
—John Donne (c. 15721631)
“Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.”
—Heraclitus (c. 535475 B.C.)