Audrey Emery (1904 - 1971)

Born 4 Jan 1904 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Dmitri Pavlovich Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov — married 1926 (to 1937) in Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Died 25 Nov 1971 at age 67 in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Florida, United States

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Biography

Audrey Emery is Notable.

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.

She was born either in Cincinnati or in Manhattan. She was the youngest daughter of John Josiah Emery, a real-estate millionaire based in Cincinnati.

In 1926, she married, morganatically, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (1891–1942), an exile after the 1917 Russian Revolution, in Biarritz. 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. 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. Before their eventual divorce in 1937, she was the mother of one son:

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.

After her divorce, Audrey moved to France with her son, marrying that same year to Georgian Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (1898–1985). 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, 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.

She died in Palm Beach on November 25, 1971. She was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Audrey Emery

• Find A Grave: Memorial #78924499