Lucy Tichenor Banning was the wild and unpredictable socialite daughter of the hugely successful California businessman, Phineas Banning. She was known as Lucy "Ginger" Banning... "A Peach", "Man-crazy", "a free-spirited ingenue", "the most beautiful woman in California." Lucy Banning was called all these things and much more, some less than flattering. She was considered one of the richest and most beautiful women in the latter part of the 19th century, a time when Victorian rules were the name of the game, but Lucy had enough money to play by her own rules, thanks to the large fortune inherited from her father, "Transportation King", Phineas Banning as well as the financial windfalls she collected thanks to her long line of wealthy ex-husbands. Married a total of four times, she first eloped to San Francisco with husband #1, John Bradbury on December 4, 1893, and for four years the marriage seemed successful. Then the couple attended a Santa Monica party, from which the impulsive Mrs. Banning left with another man. Newspaper reporters later found her with a married middle-aged Englishman named W. Russell Ward, at a San Francisco hotel. After a few days, Lucy returned home. Her husband John, tracked Ward down and issued an ultimatum: "Get out of town in 24 hours, or else." Ward left, but was killed within days, "accidentally" stepping from a moving train, in the middle of the night, in Iowa. Some suggested that the accident could have been murder, and others thought it was a suicide. Banning remained married to Bradbury until 1902, when she divorced him and sued for non-support. Then she met famous stage actor Mace E. Greenleaf (husband #2) and married him in 1903. Only to take off on him later, for a fling with longtime friend, Charles H. Hastings. Hastings was a scion of an old San Francisco family and owner of Hastings Ranch in Pasadena. She was romantically entangled for years with Hastings, who wooed her all the way to Europe and back. But in 1918 she gave up Hastings and married Robert E. Ross (husband # 3), a newspaper reporter and son of a judge on April 2, 1912. Later she left Ross for a 30 year old famous Japanese Wrestler, Setsuzo Ota (husband #4), who was touring the U.S. at the time in 1927. A year later in 1929, the two drove to Seattle to be married, as interracial marriage was then a violation of California law. During her extended European honeymoon with fourth husband Setsuzo Ota, she caught pneumonia and died, shortly after her 53rd birthday. According to her Husband, Ota, Lucy knew she was dying and her last words were "I'll get criticized for this too!" (Bio by: Jay Lance)