Cynthia Cary Van Pelt

Cynthia Cary Van Pelt Russell is an American socialite, who was part of American 'High Society' in New York and Newport, Rhode Island, and is a first cousin once removed of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Early life
She is the daughter of Guy Fairfax Cary (1879–1950) and Cynthia Roche (1884–1966), who married in 1922. Her brother was Guy Fairfax Cary II (1923–2004), who did not marry. Her maternal grandparents were James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy (1851–1920) and Frances Ellen Work (1857–1947), and her mother's siblings were Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy (the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales), and the Hon. Francis Burke Roche. Her paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Miller Potter (1856–1945) and Clarence Cary (1845–1911), who grew up at Vaucluse plantation with his sister, Constance Cary (1843–1920). Her great-grandparents, Archibald Cary and Monimia Fairfax were a Southern planter aristocrat family. Archibald Cary was the son of Wilson Jefferson Cary and Virginia Randolph. Monimia Fairfax was the daughter of Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron.

Personal life
She was married first to lawyer Charles Bingham Penrose Van Pelt (1922–2003),[10] the son of Andrew Van Pelt and Sarah Hannah Boles Penrose. He graduated from the Groton School, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and served in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence in the Pacific during World War II. Before their divorce, they had two sons and a daughter: Peter Turner Van Pelt, a writer; Guy Fairfax Cary Van Pelt (b. 1957), who married Mary McGill duBose Adickes, the daughter of Mrs. Thomas Walter Blake and David Pryor Adickes, in 2000; and Abby Ann Van Pelt, who married Jay R. Feldman, in 1982. She later married Edwin F. Russell (1914–2001), an American newspaper publisher. He had previously been married to Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough, from 1943 until their divorce in 1966. Winston Spencer Churchill, a grandson of the prime minister, served as a page at the wedding. He married Iris Paine after Lady Sarah and before Cynthia.

Residence Mrs. Russell's home in Newport, "Elm Court" was featured in a Style article of The New York Times about the updating of classic homes in that rarified community. She was an active member of the Preservation Society of Newport County. Cynthia Cary Russell is also a grand niece of the writer Constance Cary.