In 1902, his daughter, Margaret aged 18, married Dr. Smith Hollins McKim. They became social leaders in New York's high society. But in 1910 she brought a sensational divorce suit against her husband, claiming he beat her in drunken rages. She remarried in 1911, this time to Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest men in America having inherited the bulk of his father's fortune in 1899. They had two sons, Alfred Gwynne Jr. and George Washington III. While traveling to England on business, Alfred Sr. heroically lost his life in the sinking of RMS "Lusitania", a famous British passenger ocean liner by German torpedo in 1915 during World War I. Margaret inherited her husband's fortune. One son from this marriage, Alfred Jr., went on to become one of the driving forces behind thoroughbred racing in America. Margaret married two more times, both ending in divorce. In 1931, she legally resumed her maiden name.