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Audrey Emery

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Audrey Emery
Princess Romanovskaya-Ilyinskaya
Audrey with her first husband Dmitri Pavlovich
BornAnna Audrey Emery
(1904-01-04)January 4, 1904
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
DiedNovember 25, 1971(1971-11-25) (aged 67)
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1926; div. 1937)​
​
​
(m. 1937, divorced)​
IssuePrince Paul Dmitriievich Romanovsky-Ilyinsky
FatherJohn Josiah Emery
MotherLela Amelia Alexander

Anna Audrey Emery (January 4, 1904 – November 25, 1971) was an American heiress and socialite who was the wife of one of the last Russian grand dukes.

Early life

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Audrey was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on 4 January 1904. She was the youngest daughter of John Josiah Emery (1835–1908), a real-estate millionaire, and his wife, the former Lela Amelia Alexander (1867–1953),[1] daughter of General Charles T. Alexander, of Washington. She had two sisters, Alexandra[2] (Mrs. Benjamin Moore[3] and Mrs. Robert Gordon McKay) and Lela (Mrs. Alastair Mackintosh and Duchess of Talleyrand), and two brothers, Thomas Emery and John Josiah Emery Jr. (who married Irene Gibson Post, the daughter of the artist Charles Dana Gibson and niece of Lady Astor).[4]

After her father's death, her mother remarried to the Hon. Alfred Anson, a British stockbroker living in New York City, in 1912.[5] Anson was the seventh son of Thomas Anson, 2nd Earl of Lichfield and Lady Harriett Georgiana Louisa, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn.[6]

Her maternal grandparents were General Charles Tripler Alexander and Julia (née Barrett) Alexander of St. Paul, Minnesota and Bar Harbor, Maine.[1]

Following the death of her mother, she inherited a $40-million real estate fortune.[7]

Personal life

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Her romantic attachments, including an involvement in summer 1926 with the popular novelist Michael Arlen, attracted press attention.[8] In November 1926, she married, morganatically, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (1891–1942), an exile after the 1917 Russian Revolution,[9] in Biarritz.[10] The Grand Duke, a son of Grand Duke Paul and the late Princess Alexandra of Greece, was a grandson of both Tsar Alexander II of Russia and King George I of Greece.[4][11] Dmitri's cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, elevated Audrey to Russian rank of knyaginya (a noble, not dynastic "princess") with the usual name Romanovsky and granted her the suffix, Ilyinsky, from Dmitri's former property at Ilyinskoye in Krasnogorsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russia.[10] Before their eventual divorce in 1937, she was the mother of one son:[12]

Prince Paul Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (1928–2004), who became an American citizen, served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and was a three-time mayor of Palm Beach, Florida.[13]

After her divorce, Audrey moved to France with her son, marrying that same year to Georgian Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (1898–1985).[7] Audrey and Djordjadze also divorced. After the end of both marriages, she resumed her maiden name and was known as Mrs. Audrey Emery.

In the 1940s, she lived in South Carolina, later moving to Biarritz, France. Over the years, she owned several houses in Palm Beach (she was a member of the Everglades Club[7]), Florida. In the 1960s, she built a house in Cincinnati, Ohio, to which she moved in order to be closer to her son and his family.[14]

She died in Palm Beach on November 25, 1971.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Mrs. Alfred Anson" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 July 1953. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  2. ^ "DANCE FOR MISS EMERY; Hon. Mrs. Alfred Anson Also Gives Dinner for Debutante Daughter" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 December 1913. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  3. ^ "COUNT BEUF MARRIES MISS EDITH CANDLER; Count Tito Beuf His Son's Best Man at Ceremony in St. Patrick's Cathedral. ALEXANDRA EMERY, BRIDE Daughter of the Hon. Mrs. Alfred Anson Weds Benjamin Moore in St. Bartholomew's Church" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 December 1920. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  4. ^ a b "MISS EMERY TO WED GRAND DUKE DMITRI; New York Girl Now in France Engaged to Former Russian Nobleman" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 November 1926. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  5. ^ "MRS. J. J. EMERY MARRIES; Widow Weds Hon. Alfred Anson In St. Bartholomew's Chapel" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 July 1912. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  6. ^ "CAPT. ALFRED ANSON; Seventh Son of the Second Earl of Lichfield Dies at 68" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 March 1944. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d "MRS. AUDREY EMERY, DUKE DMITRI WIDOW". The New York Times. 1971-11-26. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  8. ^ "Odd dilemma of the Grand Duke's Bride". Salt Lake Telegram. 12 December 1926. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  9. ^ "GRAND DUKE DMITRI SHOT.; Czar's Relative, Once in Love with American Girl, Wounded in Battle" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 November 1914. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  10. ^ a b "MISS EMERY WEDS ROYALTY IN CHURCH; Biarritz Society at. Religious Rites for Cincinnati Girl and Grand Duke Dimitri. VEIL IS IMPERIAL HEIRLOOM Bride Called Princess Ilyinska, by Decision of Cyril, Czarist Family's Head" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 November 1926. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  11. ^ "MISS EMERY TO WED GRAND DUKE SUNDAY; Marriage of Mrs. Alfred Anson's Daughter and Dmitri Pavlovich to Take Place in Biarritz" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 November 1926. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  12. ^ "GRAND DUKE IN DIVORCE; Dimitri and the Former Audrey Emery Get Decree in France" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 December 1937. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  13. ^ Robertson, Campbell (17 February 2004). "Paul Ilyinsky, A Romanov, 76, And a Mayor". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  14. ^ Skott, Staffan (1997). Kõik need Bernadotid. ISBN 9985-65-142-1
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