Bucks County authorities found Dayle Haddon, 76, dead in a second-floor bedroom Friday morning after emergency dispatchers were notified of an unconscious person in the Solebury Township home. A 76-year-old man who police later identified as Walter J. Blucas of Erie was hospitalized in critical condition.
Responders detected a high level of carbon monoxide at the property and township police said Saturday that investigators determined that “a faulty flue and exhaust pipe on a gas heating system caused carbon monoxide leak. Two doctors were taken to hospital for carbon monoxide exposure and a police officer was treated at the scene.
As a model, Dayle Haddon appeared on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Esquire in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as in the swimsuit issue of “Sports Illustrated” in 1973. She also appeared in a twenty films from the 1970s to 1990s, according to IMDb.com, including “Bullets Over Broadway” in 1994, with John Cusack.
Dayle Haddon left modeling after giving birth to her daughter, Ryan, in the mid-1970s, but had to re-enter the workforce after her husband died in 1991. This time, she found the modeling industry much less friendly: “They told me: ‘At 38, you’re not profitable,'” Dayle Haddon explained to the New York Times in 2003.
Opening a menial job at an advertising agency, she began contacting cosmetics companies, telling them there was a growing market for selling beauty products to aging baby boomers. She eventually landed a contract with Clairol, then Estée Lauder and then L’Oréal, for whom she promoted the company’s anti-aging products for more than a decade. She also hosted beauty segments for CBS’ “The Early Show.”
“I continued to model, but in a different way,” she told the Times. I became the spokesperson for my age.”
In 2008, Dayle Haddon founded “WomenOne,” an organization aimed at promoting educational opportunities for girls and women from marginalized communities, including Rwanda, Haiti and Jordan.
Born in Quebec, she began modeling as a teenager to pay for ballet lessons — she began her career with the Canadian ballet company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, according to its website.
Dayle Haddon’s daughter Ryan said in a social media post that her mother was “the biggest champion of them all.” An inspiration to many.”
“A pure heart. A rich inner life. Touching so many lives. A life well lived. Rest in peace, mom,” she wrote.
