Jeanne Biegger, The Ex Wife of Dean Martin

Jeanne Biegger was an American model, beauty queen, and Hollywood public figure best remembered as Dean Martin’s second wife. Born Dorothy Jean Biegger on March 27, 1927, in Coral Gables, Florida, she first gained public attention through modeling and beauty pageants before entering the wider Hollywood spotlight after her marriage to Martin in 1949.

Her story is often told only through Dean Martin, but that gives an incomplete picture. Jeanne had her own early public identity, became part of one of classic Hollywood’s most recognizable families, raised three children with Martin, and later chose a quieter life after their 1973 divorce. She died in Beverly Hills on August 24, 2016, at the age of 89.

Jeanne Biegger Quick Facts

Detail	Information
Full birth name	Dorothy Jean Biegger
Known as	Jeanne Biegger; Jeanne Martin after marriage
Famous for	Model, beauty queen, and Dean Martin’s second wife
Date of birth	March 27, 1927
Birthplace	Coral Gables, Florida, United States
Date of death	August 24, 2016
Age at death	89 years old
Place of death	Beverly Hills, California, United States
Cause of death	Cancer, according to public reports
Marriage to Dean Martin	1949 to 1973
Children with Dean Martin	Dean Paul Martin, Ricci Martin, and Gina Martin
Height	Not reliably confirmed in major public records
Net worth	Not publicly verified

Early Life, Modeling, and Orange Bowl Recognition

Jeanne was born in Coral Gables, near Miami, at a time when South Florida had a lively mix of hotels, clubs, sporting events, pageants, and visiting entertainers. Her early public life was connected to that world. She worked as a model, was voted Orange Bowl Queen, and became associated with the Orange Bowl, a major event that brought newspaper attention, social visibility, and celebrity connections.

Her modeling background matters because it shows she was not an unknown figure before Dean Martin. Jeanne already had a polished public image shaped by beauty-pageant culture and mid-century style. That is why the phrase American beauty queen Jeanne Biegger points back to her Florida pageant background rather than only to her marriage. The misspelling Jeannie sometimes appears in casual searches, but Jeanne Biegger and Jeanne Martin are the useful names for biography records.

Meeting Dean Martin and Entering Hollywood

Jeanne reportedly met Dean Martin in Miami while Martin and Lewis were becoming one of America’s most popular entertainment teams. The Martin and Lewis partnership with comedian Jerry Lewis helped move the American singer and actor Dean Martin from nightclubs toward national fame. Their split in 1956 later changed Dean’s career path, but Jeanne had already entered his life during the years when the duo was rising.

Jeanne and Dean married in 1949. The marriage moved her from Florida’s beauty and modeling scene into the center of Dean Martin’s fast-rising career. During the years that followed, Martin grew from nightclub stages into records, films, television, and celebrity circles. In that era, names such as the Beachcomber Club, the Cocoanut Grove, and Palm Springs help readers understand the nightclub and resort world around celebrity life, while opening night coverage helped turn famous couples into public figures.

Marriage to Dean Martin

Jeanne Biegger was Dean Martin’s second wife. His first wife was Betty McDonald, and after his marriage to Jeanne ended, he later married Catherine Hawn. Jeanne’s marriage to Martin lasted from 1949 until their divorce in 1973, a span of 24 years.

Those years covered many of Martin’s most successful periods in entertainment. Jeanne was part of his private life while his public image grew around music, comedy, film, television, and live performance. His recording identity included songs such as Volare, and his later television life included the Dean Martin Show, a variety show that reinforced his relaxed public style. She was often seen through the lens of his fame, but she also brought her own elegance and public experience into the marriage.

The marriage produced three children: Dean Paul Martin, Ricci Martin, and Gina Martin. Because of them, Jeanne remained an important part of the Martin family story long after the divorce.

Children and Family Life

Jeanne’s role as a mother is central to her biography. Dean Martin had eight children in total, and Jeanne was the mother of three of them. From his first marriage came four children, including Deana Martin and Gail, so Jeanne joined a large blended household as well as raising her own children with Dean. Her children grew up close to entertainment fame, but each had a different relationship with public life.

Dean Paul Martin

Dean Paul Martin, born in 1951, became the most widely recognized of Jeanne’s children. In some older listings, Dean-Paul appears as a hyphenated form of his name. He worked in music as part of Dino, Desi & Billy, appeared as an actor, played tennis, and later served as a pilot. His life ended tragically in 1987 when he died in a military jet crash, a loss that deeply affected the Martin family.

Ricci Martin

Their son Ricci Martin, born in 1953, was Dean and Jeanne’s youngest son and followed a creative path as a musician, performer, and author. His book That’s Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin gave fans a more personal look at Dean Martin as a father and family man. Ricci died in August 2016, only weeks before Jeanne’s own death, making that period especially painful for the family.

Gina Martin

Gina Martin, Jeanne and Dean’s daughter, was born in 1956 and has lived more privately than her brothers. She is also known through her marriage to Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys, a connection that linked the Martin family with another major American music family. Her lower public profile should be treated respectfully; she remains part of Jeanne’s story without needing to be framed as a constant public figure.

Jeanne also belonged to a larger blended family. Dean’s children from his first marriage and later family connections made the Martin household a complicated celebrity family, but Jeanne’s 24-year marriage and her three children kept her place in that history significant.

Divorce and Later Life

Jeanne and Dean Martin divorced in 1973. The private reasons for the divorce are not fully confirmed in reliable public records, so the end of the marriage is best described without speculation. What is clear is the timeline: their marriage ended after 24 years, Martin remarried Catherine Hawn later in 1973, and Jeanne did not remarry in a way that became a major public story.

After the divorce, Jeanne lived much more quietly than she had during her years beside Martin. She did not try to turn the separation into a separate celebrity career, and many details about her later life remained private. Even so, she stayed connected to the Martin family through her children and through the public memory of Dean Martin’s life.

Public Image and Common Search Topics

Jeanne’s public identity was shaped by modeling, beauty titles, Hollywood society, and her marriage to Dean Martin. She was not mainly known as a major actress or performer, although some records and memorial references describe her in entertainment terms because she moved in that public world. Old caption language sometimes described Dean Martin and his wife Jeanne at events, while shortened database labels such as Dean Martin and wife now help readers connect those records to Jeanne.

Searches connecting Jeanne Biegger to I Love Lucy usually come from online references to “Mrs. Dean Martin” and the wider classic television era. The better way to understand that connection is limited: Jeanne is associated with old Hollywood and with Dean Martin’s circle, but she is best remembered as a model, Orange Bowl queen, Dean Martin’s second wife, and mother of three of his children.

Photo archives also place Jeanne Biegger with her husband, actor Dean Martin, alongside actor and singer Frank Sinatra and his wife, actor Ava Gardner; in that context, Biegger and Gardner appear as part of the same Hollywood social circle. One caption identifies Jeanne Biegger at the premiere of the film My Fair Lady with American singer and actor Dean Martin (Dino Paul Crocetti), Frank Sinatra, and Natalie Wood. Other captions reverse the wording and call him American actor and singer Dean Martin, showing how search wording varies. Related search terms sometimes add Frank Sinatra Jr., but that should be treated as archive context rather than a central part of Jeanne’s life.

Through Dean’s career, Jeanne’s public world brushed against names such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Rat Pack, even though her own biography should not be reduced to those associations.

Several personal details are also commonly searched but not reliably settled. Jeanne’s exact height is not confirmed in major public records, and her individual net worth has not been publicly verified. Because celebrity net-worth claims are often speculative, the cleanest answer is to say that her finances were private rather than repeat an unsupported number.

Death, Obituary, and Memorial

Jeanne Biegger died on August 24, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. She was 89 years old, and her cause of death was publicly reported as cancer. Obituary reports remembered her as Jeanne Martin, Dean Martin’s ex-wife and the former wife of singer and actor Dean Martin, and some reports noted that she died Wednesday at her Beverly Hills home after a battle with cancer.

Her obituary and memorial mentions often use the name Jeanne Martin, while biography searches may use Jeanne Biegger or Dorothy Jean Biegger. Readers looking for grave or memorial information may need to search both Jeanne Biegger and Jeanne Martin because records can appear under either her birth surname or her married name.

Her final years are also remembered in connection with family loss. Dean Paul Martin had died in 1987, and Ricci Martin died earlier in August 2016. Dean Martin himself died of respiratory failure on Christmas Day in 1995, another date often noted in the crooner’s family timeline. Together, these events gave Jeanne’s later biography a poignant final chapter and deepened public interest in the Martin family story.

Jeanne Biegger’s Legacy

Jeanne Biegger’s legacy sits between private family life and public Hollywood history. She was not a star in the same way Dean Martin was, but her life touched several important parts of mid-century entertainment culture: Miami beauty-pageant visibility, classic Hollywood marriage, the Martin family, and the long afterlife of celebrity memory. In family memory, she can also be understood as a matriarch whose story connects public glamour with private loss.

She remains interesting because she lived close to fame without being defined only by fame. She had a public image before marriage, spent 24 years inside one of entertainment’s most famous families, raised children who carried the Martin name into music, acting, writing, and private life, and later withdrew from the spotlight. That balance gives readers a fuller and more respectful view of her life.

Final Summary

Jeanne Biegger, born Dorothy Jean Biegger, was a Florida-born model and beauty queen who became widely known as Jeanne Martin after marrying Dean Martin in 1949. Their marriage lasted 24 years and produced three children: Dean Paul Martin, Ricci Martin, and Gina Martin. After their divorce in 1973, Jeanne lived more privately, but her connection to classic Hollywood and the Martin family kept her name in public memory. She died in Beverly Hills on August 24, 2016, at age 89, with cancer reported as the cause of death.

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