A life that begins in Brest and stretches into a famous American line
For me, Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec is a lady at the crossroads. On one side is Brest, France, with its clerks, office work, family documents, and war’s bitterness. New York has ship decks, immigration documents, new marriages, and children that would become famous through the Stallone family. I think her life is quieter than celebrity biographies. Like an ice river, it is calm but strong.
In Brest, Finistère, France, Jeanne was born on July 29, 1901. Marie Pauline Rodrigue and Louis Victor Clerec were her parents. Breton roots matter in family memory. Brest was more than a port. It was threshold. It sent folks out. That outward motion seems to have characterized Jeanne all her life.
Louis Victor Clerec, her father, was a municipal clerk and then executive. Jeanne was young when he died in 1918. That loss altered everything. The family had less security, certainty, and pressure to move forward. Marie Pauline Rodrigue, Jeanne’s mother, was the family’s emotional core. In 1906, her brother Victor Louis Clerec was born. The little core left France and started over in the US.
The Clerec family in brief
| Family member | Relationship to Jeanne | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Louis Victor Clerec | Father | Brest municipal clerk and office worker |
| Marie Pauline Rodrigue | Mother | Traveled with Jeanne to America |
| Victor Louis Clerec | Brother | Emigrated with Jeanne and their mother |
| John Paul Labofish | First husband | Married Jeanne in Manhattan in 1920 |
| Jacqueline Frances Labofish, later Jackie Stallone | Daughter | Mother of Sylvester Stallone |
| Madeleine Renée Labofish | Daughter | Jeanne’s second publicly named daughter |
| Clarence Winnerton Hyer | Second husband | Later marriage, linked to a larger blended family |
| Sylvester Stallone | Grandson | Well known actor and filmmaker |
| Frank Stallone Jr. | Grandson | Musician and actor |
| Toni Ann Filiti D’Alto | Granddaughter | Part of the next generation of the family |
| Sage Stallone | Great grandson | Part of Jeanne’s later legacy |
| Seargeoh Stallone | Great grandson | Part of Jeanne’s later legacy |
| Sophia Rose Stallone | Great granddaughter | Part of Jeanne’s later legacy |
| Sistine Rose Stallone | Great granddaughter | Part of Jeanne’s later legacy |
| Scarlet Rose Stallone | Great granddaughter | Part of Jeanne’s later legacy |
Crossing the Atlantic and starting over
The most vivid chapter in Jeanne’s story is the crossing from France to the United States in 1920. I find this moment especially striking because it feels so compressed. One year after her father’s death, Jeanne left France with her mother and brother. The family traveled with very little money, reportedly about 40 dollars. That number stays with me because it makes the journey feel real. It is not a grand migration wrapped in velvet. It is a leap made with tight hands and a stubborn heart.
Jeanne arrived in New York and married John Paul Labofish in Manhattan on 20 April 1920. That marriage marked the beginning of her American family line. John Paul Labofish was the first spouse in the story and the father of her older daughters. Through him, Jeanne became linked to the Labofish name, a name that would later be reshaped through marriage, geography, and time into the family tree most people now recognize through Jackie Stallone and Sylvester Stallone.
I see Jeanne’s early American life as a braid of uncertainty and reinvention. She was no longer only a Breton daughter. She became a wife, a mother, and an immigrant trying to build a home in a country that was both promise and pressure.
Marriage, children, and the shape of a blended family
Jeanne’s first marriage produced at least two daughters. The best known is Jacqueline Frances Labofish, later Jackie Stallone, born in 1921. Jackie would become a colorful and public figure in her own right, later known for astrology, television appearances, and a sharply distinctive personality. Through Jackie, Jeanne became the grandmother of Sylvester Stallone, Frank Stallone Jr., and Toni Ann Filiti D’Alto.
The second daughter, Madeleine Renée Labofish, was born in 1922. She is less visible in public memory, but she remains part of the core family structure. When I look at Jeanne’s family, I do not see only the famous names. I see the quieter branches too, the ones that do not flash under lights but still hold the tree steady.
By the early 1930s, the first marriage appears to have broken down. Jeanne later married Clarence Winnerton Hyer, around 1930. That second marriage is important because it expands the family story into a larger and more blended household. Accounts suggest that this marriage produced six children. Those children are less publicly documented, but their existence matters because they show Jeanne not as a one note ancestor, but as the matriarch of a wider and more complicated domestic world.
Her family life seems to have carried the weather of the century. There were migrations, separations, remarriages, births, and the slow accumulation of descendants. It is the kind of family history that grows like ivy, reaching across walls and windows.
Jeanne’s legacy through descendants
Jackie Stallone and her children popularize Jeanne’s family line. Jeanne’s most famous descendent is Sylvester Stallone, but others exist. Frank Stallone Jr. publicized the family through music and acting. That intergenerational story includes Toni Ann Filiti D’Alto. Next are Sage, Seargeoh, Sophia, Sistine, and Scarlet Stallone, the great grandchildren.
Jeanne’s private life created the foundation for a family that became famous. Film premieres and red carpets do not define her. From dates, crosses, marriages, births, and family endurance’s invisible struggle. She lives like soil under a brilliant garden. Though few look below, everything depends on what’s there.
Family timeline
1920: Jeanne arrives in New York with her mother and brother, then marries John Paul Labofish in Manhattan.
1921: Jacqueline Frances Labofish is born.
1922: Madeleine Renée Labofish is born.
1923: Jeanne returns briefly to France with her daughters before coming back to New York later that year.
1930: The first marriage has broken down, and family circumstances shift again.
Around 1930: Jeanne marries Clarence Winnerton Hyer.
1974: Jeanne dies in New Jersey.
FAQ
Who was Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec?
Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec was a French born woman from Brest, France, whose family story connects old Breton roots to a large American family line. She is best known as the mother of Jackie Stallone and the grandmother of Sylvester Stallone.
Who were Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec’s parents?
Her parents were Louis Victor Clerec and Marie Pauline Rodrigue. Her father died in 1918, and that loss appears to have played a major role in the family’s move toward the United States.
How did Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec connect to the Stallone family?
Her daughter Jacqueline Frances Labofish later became Jackie Stallone. Jackie was the mother of Sylvester Stallone, Frank Stallone Jr., and Toni Ann Filiti D’Alto. Through Jackie, Jeanne became part of the Stallone lineage.
Did Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec have more than one marriage?
Yes. Her first husband was John Paul Labofish, and later she married Clarence Winnerton Hyer. The second marriage is associated with a larger blended family and several more children.
What makes Jeanne Victoria Anne Clerec’s story important?
I think her importance lies in the contrast between visibility and obscurity. She never needed fame to matter. Her life carried migration, loss, renewal, motherhood, and continuity. Those are the quiet engines that move family history forward.
What is known about her children and descendants?
Her most clearly documented children are Jacqueline Frances Labofish and Madeleine Renée Labofish. Through Jacqueline, Jeanne became the grandmother of Sylvester Stallone, Frank Stallone Jr., and Toni Ann Filiti D’Alto, and the great grandmother of several later Stallone children, including Sage Stallone, Seargeoh Stallone, Sophia Rose Stallone, Sistine Rose Stallone, and Scarlet Rose Stallone.
