Zelie Bancroft Crosby

Painting of Zelie

In the 1930s while her two children were growing up, Zelie was the proprietor of an interior decoration shop around the corner from her home in Rutherford, New Jersey. After moving to a farm near Flemington, New Jersey, Zelie became well known for the fine Dachshunds she bred under the kennel prefix of "Hihope". She was also a well-known and respected judge of the breed.

It was while she was acting as a steward at the Westminster Dog Show in Madison Square Garden in New York City that she suffered a heart attack and died later that evening at the military hospital at Fort Dix, New Jersey. She had a heart condition—hypertension—but at the time (1962) effective high blood pressure medication was still under development.

She was named "Zelie Bancroft Crosby" at birth, but later her name was changed to "Zelie de Lussan Crosby" in honor of Zelie de Lussan, godmother to Zelie Crosby and a dear friend of Zelie's mother, Josephine. Zelie de Lussan was a famous metropolitan opera singer noted for singing Carmen. When Josephine re-married, Zelie Crosby took on her step-father's name becoming "Zelie de Lussan Porter".