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'Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill', KG (13 November 1871 – 30 June 1934) became the 9th Duke of Marlborough upon the death of his father in 1892. He was often known as "Sunny" Marlborough after his courtesy title of the Earl of Sunderland, which he held until 1883. He was a first cousin of Winston Churchill.
On November 6, 1895, he married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, at Saint Thomas Church in New York City. They had two sons, John Albert Edward William Spencer-Churchill, Marquis of Blandford, eventually the 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill. They were divorced in 1921 and the marriage was annulled five years later. The Vanderbilt dowry was used to restore Blenheim Palace, and replenish its furnishings and library; many of the original contents had been sold in a succession of sales throughout the 19th century. Many of the jewels worn by Duchesses of Marlborough also date from this period. The 9th Duke employed the landscape gardener Achille Duchene to create the water garden on the terrace Blenheim.
He married, as his second wife, another American, Gladys Marie Deacon, in 1921; she was a daughter of Edward Parker Deacon and his wife, the former Florence Baldwin. Artistic and a keen gardener, she had enlarged images of her startling blue/green eyes painted on the ceiling of the main portico of Blenheim Palace, where they remain today. Later in their unhappy, childless marriage, she dined with her husband keeping a revolver by the side of her plate. The couple separated but never divorced.
At the time of his death, the duke reportedly was negotiating to enter a Catholic religious order in Italy, having converted to that religion late in life.