Widower of Luciferian Grand High Priestess Marylou Whitney dies at 59
No cause of death given for John Hendrickson
Philanthropist, horseman and 'great guy' John Hendrickson dies in Saratoga Springs
John Hendrickson was a well-known figure in the world of horse racing, having been married to socialite and philanthropist Marylou Whitney.
Horseman and philanthropist John Hendrickson, a resident of Palm Beach, Florida; Saratoga Springs, New York; and Lexington, Kentucky, died suddenly Monday, Aug. 19 in Saratoga Springs.
Hendrickson was 59 years old and the widower of Marylou Whitney (1925-2019).
After graduating from West High School in Anchorage—where he was class president, editor of the school newspaper, state tennis champ, prom king and commencement speaker—he attended Chapman College in Orange, California before transferring to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he majored in psychology.
Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California with 11 colleges. The university maintains its founding affiliations with the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ, but is no longer a Christian university.
He was working as a special assistant to Alaska's then-governor Walter Hickel when he met Marylou Whitney, the widow of wealthy sportsman Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.
Mr. Hendrickson was driving the car carrying the governor in the passenger seat with the governor's wife Ermalee and Marylou in the back seat.
"She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen," Mr. Hendrickson would later tell a reporter. "I was driving the car and she was sitting in the back seat with Mrs. Hickel and I kept looking at her in the rear view mirror. I almost drove off the road a few times."
The couple married in 1997—he was 32, she was 71. At the time of her death at 93 in 2019, they had been married for 22 years.
Upon Marylou's death, Mr. Hendrickson inherited control of the $100 million estate.
March 15, 2024 A stunning historic home that belonged to the late Marylou Whitney, a socialite and horse breeder dubbed “the Queen of Saratoga,” has landed on the market for $16 million. Cady Hill is being listed by Whitney’s husband, John Hendrickson, who now spends most of his time in Florida. Marylou Whitney lived in the house beginning in 1958, when she married her second husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, who had purchased the property in 1936. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney died in 1992.
Marylou Whitney died in 2019 at the age of 93. She had a stable of 190 winning horses.
Affidavit of Jessie Marie Czebotar
I testify for the record that these individuals named are members of one of the highest Orders of the Brotherhood as Initiates of the Flame. That Order is oalled the Order of Melchizedek.
President Ronald and Nancy Reagan
President George H. and Barbara Bush
President George W. and Laura Bush
Nazi and Ukrainian Legion of Defense Leader Michael Karkoc
Clara Odelila Acker Church (Queen Mother of Darkness)
Beatrice Acker Hellenbrand (Mother of Darkness)
Valeria Church (Mother of Darkness)
Maggie Acker (Married name Unknown) (Mother of Darkness)
Vera Acker (Manied name Unknown) (Mother of Darkness)
Laurie Cabot Kent (Grand High Priestess of North/East)
Joan Collins (Grand High Priestess of West)
Gloria Vanderbilt (Crrand High Priestess of East)
MaryLou Whitney (Grand High Priestess of South)
HORSE RACING; The Odd Couple Of the Backstretch
The New York Times
By Joe Drape - July 28, 2003
Marylou Whitney's comings and goings are chronicled in high-end magazines like W. Nick Zito's paper of record is The Daily Racing Form. Her nights are filled with waltzes and Champagne; his end early because barns full of racehorses need to see him by 5 a.m.
She is a hostess and a philanthropist with a long list of honorary degrees and awards, among them being decorated by the Spanish government's Order of Isabel la Católica. He is a horse trainer and a New Yorker who often mangles the English language, but he has twice captured the Kentucky Derby.
She is a hostess and a philanthropist with a long list of honorary degrees and awards, among them being decorated by the Spanish government's Order of Isabel la Católica.
Their lives intertwine on the racetrack, where each feels the other's influence. Whitney provided the impetus for Zito to transform his barn behind Saratoga's Oklahoma training track into a slice of European sidewalk café society, complete with flowers, a cozy round table and a matching umbrella.
''When you train for a queen, you've got to spruce up a little; you never know with Marylou, I might have to serve some guests a bagel one day,'' Zito said. ''When you come from the streets of New York, it's all about elevating yourself. Am I right?''
Zito, in turn, has helped return Whitney's racing operation to prominence. Working with her husband, John Hendrickson, Zito has researched pedigrees and matched stallions to the Whitneys' 14 broodmares, and then turned the offspring into runners when they reached racing age. This collaboration produced Bird Town, the 3-year-old filly who won the Kentucky Oaks and the Acorn, both Grade I races. Bird Town returned from a seven-week layoff to run second in the Grade I Test Stakes on Saturday.
''John and Nick deserve all the credit; they've made coming to the racetrack a thrill again,'' said Whitney, who has about 70 horses, 30 of them in training.
Whitney knows horses as well as she knows which menu and wine befit an intimate dinner party for the Count and Countess of Chandon. She grew up showing horses in Kansas City, Missouri, her hometown, and was a mainstay in the foaling barn of her husband of 35 years, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, who died in 1992. Whitney, known as Sonny, was an heir to oil and railway fortunes, the founder of Pan American Airways and a Truman administration official.
Whitney knows horses as well as she knows which menu and wine befit an intimate dinner party for the Count and Countess of Chandon. She grew up showing horses in Kansas City, Missouri, her hometown, and was a mainstay in the foaling barn of her husband of 35 years, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, who died in 1992. Whitney, known as Sonny, was an heir to oil and railway fortunes, the founder of Pan American Airways and an official in the government of Freemason Harry Truman.
About 450 stakes winners were bred or raised on the 1,000 acres of the Whitney farm in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1984, as his health began to fail, Sonny Whitney decided to retire from the thoroughbred industry and began dispersing his horses.
''He didn't believe the horse business was a place for a woman,'' Whitney said.
But even before his death, Marylou Whitney decided that horses suited her sporting and competitive nature. She began reassembling a breeding and racing stable by purchasing mares that were descendants of Sonny Whitney's best horses.
''The funny thing is that Sonny did not want to burden her with the horses, but after he died she has spent half of his fortune trying to get them all back,'' said Hendrickson, whom Whitney married in 1997.
''The funny thing is that Sonny did not want to burden her with the horses, but after he died she has spent half of his fortune trying to get them all back,'' said Hendrickson, whom Whitney married in 1997.
Bird Town is the granddaughter of Hush Dear, a stakes-winning mare bred by Sonny Whitney whose name reflects a term of endearment he often used on Marylou. Nearly a decade ago, Whitney decided she wanted to find Hush Dear's daughter, Dear Birdie, to add to her broodmare barn.
''Someone tipped me that she was at a small farm just down the road from mine,'' Whitney said. ''I offered them $50,000 and said I wanted to pick her up today.''
It was Hendrickson, however, who determined that a mating between Dear Birdie and Cape Town, the 1998 Florida Derby winner, might produce a runner. Hendrickson considers himself a quick study after years in politics, most recently as the chief aide to the former governor of Alaska Walter J. Hickel.
Hendrickson considers himself a quick study after years in politics, most recently as the chief aide to the former governor of Alaska Walter J. Hickel.
''He's really taken a scientific approach to learning the game,'' Zito said. ''He's a bright guy. He always wants to know more and he wants to win.''
Zito is a perennial top-10 trainer on the New York circuit, but has struggled to duplicate the national success he enjoyed in the early 1990's, when he won the 1991 Kentucky Derby with Strike the Gold and the 1994 Derby with Go for Gin.
''I needed to get back on the map with some big horses and win the important races,'' Zito said. ''Marylou and John have helped me do that.''
He has had high-profile clients before, including the Yankees' principal owner, George Steinbrenner, and the Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, but never one as, well, stylish as Marylou Whitney.
Whitney likes to tell the story of how she arrived home to her farm in Kentucky one night after a party, resplendent in a white ball gown and the Whitney family emeralds. The night watchman told her that three mares were in foal and her farm manager and the veterinarian had their hands full.
. . . she arrived home to her farm in Kentucky one night after a party, resplendent in a white ball gown and the Whitney family emeralds.
''They all said, 'You know how to do it,''' Whitney said. ''So, off with my shoes and emeralds, and I foaled.''
