on What's My Line?. The couple, who often exchanged endearments on the show, had a son, Peter Gabel, born January 28, 1947, a legal scholar associated with New College of California in San Francisco. Peter Gabel was an associate editor of Tikkun, a Jewish-community commentary magazine. While working as a tour guide at the 1964 New York World's Fair, Peter surprised his mother as a contestant on What's My Line?. Francis and her husband settled a lawsuit for $185,000 in June 1962 that had been filed by the widow of a Detroit man who was killed when a dumbbell fell from the Gabel family's eighth-floor Ritz Tower apartment and struck him on the head while he was visiting New York to celebrate his birthday. Francis, Gabel, and their son Peter were vacationing in Connecticut when the 1960 incident happened. Francis had instructed their maid to shampoo the carpet while they were away. The maid kept windows open for a long time to minimize the smell of the shampoo. The dumbbell was part of the equipment that Francis used for her regular exercise of weightlifting. On May 26, 1963, Francis was involved in a serious car accident while driving alone from a theater on Long Island to the Manhattan studio where she was expected for a live telecast of What's My Line?. The force from a car that struck her car caused her to skid on the wet surface of the Northern State Parkway, jump the highway's concrete divider, and collide with a car containing five passengers, one of whom was killed. Francis suffered a broken collarbone, a concussion and many cuts and bruises. Francis was known for wearing a heart-shaped diamond pendant, a gift from Gabel, which she wore on nearly all of her What's My Line appearances. A mugger robbed her of the pendant as she was leaving a New York City taxi in 1988. Death Francis died at the age of 93 on May 31, 2001, in San Francisco, California, from Alzheimer's disease and cancer. She is interred in Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose, Pennsylvania. References Bibliography External links Arlene Francis hosts 1950's game show Blind Date Arlene Francis Show with guest Sparky Lyle, WOR radio, October 26, 1977 Arlene Francis, Actress and TV Panelist, dies at 93 Television: The Perils of Arlene 1957 Time Magazine profile of Francis 1907 births 2001 deaths Actresses from Boston American people