Adele Carolyn Morales was born on June 12, 1925, and died on November 22, 2015.
She was an American painter and memoirist; she is best known as the second wife of American author-playwright Norman Mailer.
Adele was born in New York City, to a Spanish mother and Native Peruvian father.
She grew up in Bensonhurst, but moved to Manhattan, where she studied painting with Hans Hofmann and took up a Bohemian lifestyle, being involved for several years with Edwin Fancher (who together with Mailer and Dan Wolf founded The Village Voice) and briefly with Jack Kerouac.
Mailer’s biographer Mary Dearborn says of those days:
Adele thrived in the city. She frequented the Village bars, especially those, like the San Remo and the Cedar Tavern, favoured by artists and writers, and she dressed in fantastic, gypsylike outfits.
By all accounts, Adele had an extraordinary physical presence.
With striking dark good looks and a beautiful body, Adele seemed to exude sexuality. (It was widely known that her lingerie was ordered from Frederick’s of Hollywood.)
Adele passed away at age 90 in November 2015.