The 101st Birthday of Princess Marie-Louise of Croÿ, Aunt of the Duke of Croÿ

Princess Marie-Luise von Croÿ in 1941.

Her Serene Highness Princess Marie-Luise (Louise) Natalie Engelberta Ludmilla von Croÿ was born at Dülmen on 18 December 1919. The princess was the third child and second daughter of Duke Karl Rudolf of Croÿ (1889-1974) and his first wife Nancy Leishman (1894-1983). She joined an older brother and sister: Duke Karl of Croÿ (1914-2011; married Princess Gabrielle of Bavaria) and Princess Antoinette (1915-2011). Marie-Louise's father was married to Helen Lewis (1898-1976) from 1922-1931. In 1933, Duke Karl married Marie Louise Wiesner (1904-1945); they produced Marie-Louise's only half-sibling: Prince Clemens von Croÿ (1934-2013). Marie-Louise's mother Nancy later married Markus Andreas d'Oldenberg (1877-1939).

Richard Metz.

On 11 March 1941 at New York, Princess Marie Louise married Richard Edward Metz (1912-1997). The couple had one child. Their daughter Valerie de Croy Metz was born at New York City on 23 January 1945. Princess Marie Louise and Richard Metz divorced in 1949. Aged eighty-five, Richard passed away on 26 October 1997 in New York.

On 5 May 1972 at Paris, Valerie Croy Metz married Philippe de Boissieu, the son of Victor de Boissieu; this union ended in divorce. In 1976 at New York, Valerie Croy Metz remarried Francesco L. Cottafavi, with whom she had one child: Vittorio Edoardo Cottafavi (b.4 December 1976). Valerie and Francesco eventually divorced. Afterwards, Valerie married John Francis Heisig (1924-2019). Valerie Croy Metz Heisig passed away in the 1990s. On 14 June 2014 at Camden, Maine, Vittorio Cottafavi married Julia E. Sortwell, the daughter of Edward B. Sortwell and Melinda Szep. Vittorio and Julia have two children: Olivia and Francesco. These are the only great-grandchildren of Princess Marie Louise of Croÿ.

Nelson Slater.

On 27 November 1952, Princess Marie Louise married Horatio Nelson Slater III (1893-1968). The Slaters are an American philanthropic, political, and manufacturing family from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut whose members include the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution," Samuel Slater, a prominent textile tycoon who founded America's first textile mill, Slater Mill (1790), and with his brother John Slater founded Slatersville, Rhode Island in North Smithfield, Rhode Island in 1803, America's first planned mill village. After moving many of their mills to the South from New England, the village of Slater-Marietta, South Carolina, was named after the family. Marie Louise of Croÿ was widowed on 22 April 1968 when her husband Nelson died at Lausanne, Switzerland, at the age of seventy-four.

Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. with his mother Ellen Walters Delano Adams.

Thirdly, on 23 July 1969, Princess Marie Louise married Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. (1910-2001), the son of Frederick Baldwin Adams (1878-1961) and Ellen Walters Delano (1884-1976). Mr. Adams, a first cousin once removed of Franklin D. Roosevelt through his mother, was the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1948 until 1969, when he and Marie-Louise moved to Paris. Princess Marie Louise of Croÿ still lives in France.

Happy Birthday Princess!

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