May / July 56
meets French mannequin-turned-actress Odile Bérard of Lyon at a polo match in Deauville, France. He’s 47; she’s 19 / He’s 31 years her senior.
Summer 56
again meets Odile, who stays on the Riviera with industrialist Paul-Louis Weiller. Soon she moves in with Rubirosa, who stays with the Dubonnets in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
28 October 56
marries Odile near Paris. The marriage will last for nine years, until his death.
1 February 57
he and Odile board a Varig Airlines plane at Idlewild Airport, New York, en route to the Dominican Republic, where Rubirosa will introduce his latest wife to his parents
5 July 65
celebrates the victory of his polo team in the Coup de France with Odile and his equipe at Jimmy’s, a Paris nightspot
6 July 65
after lots of champagne, Rubirosa is the last to leave, early in the morning. He dies on the spot/in an ambulance on the way to a hospital after his Ferrari convertible crashes into a tree on the Avenue de la Reine Marguerite near the Bois de Boulogne. His wife, Odile, survives him.
approximately 250 mourners attend the funeral service at his house in Marnes-la-Coquette. German heir and playboy Gunther Sachs helps to arrange the burial.
for a short time, Odile becomes the girlfriend of Gunther Sachs. Later she remarries and eventually settles in New England.