Jeanette Williams

During her student years in Cologne, Jeanette had been trained daily in dressage at the Circus Williams winter quarters by a retired Dutch dressage rider named Schumacher, and she had become a talented high school equestrienne.

Irvin Feld flew to Europe, and entered into negotiations with Carola, Jeanette, and Gunther, the principals of Circus Williams. Feld signed with Circus Williams a four-year renewable lease for two million dollars, for which he got Gunther, Jeanette, the animals, and the personnel necessary for their upkeep and presentation. On November 2, 1968, Gunther and Jeanette set sail for the New World on the Atlantic Saga, with seventeen elephants (Gunther’s eleven, and six more purchased in Europe by Irvin Feld), nine tigers, thirty-eight horses, and a few assorted exotic animals. On the ship, too, were Gunther’s new wife, Sigrid, a former model from Berlin, and his stepdaughter, Tina, and Jeanette five-month-old daughter, Caroline, born of a recent, short-lived union. They all landed in New York on November 15.

In 1972, Jeanette Williams married another Ringling star, the trapezist and daredevil Elvin Bale, and also settled in the United States. She divorced in 1982 and left the Ringling show to establish herself as a successful agent and circus impresario.
Raffaele De Ritis, Italy