Elizabeth Dahlgren / Lehr / Hope, Lady Decies

Author and Manhattan socialite.

First marriage

Elizabeth married John Vinton Dahlgren I (?-1898) on June 29, 1889. They had a son, John Vinton Dahlgren II (1892-?). Elizabeth was widowed in 1898. John was the son of John Adolph Dahlgren (1809-1870), the Admiral.

Second marriage

Elizabeth married Henry Symes Lehr (1869-1929), aka Harry Lehr in June of 1901. [1] [3]

World War I

In 1915 the Lehrs were in Paris, and Elizabeth worked for the Red Cross. They remained in Paris after World War I, where they bought in 1923 the Hôtel de Canvoie at 52, rue des Saintes Pères in the VIIe arrondissement. Harry Lehr died on January 3, 1929 of a brain malady in Baltimore. [4]

Third marriage

In 1931 Elizabeth was presented at Court to King George V and Queen Mary in London. On May 25, 1936 she married John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies. His first wife had been Helen Vivien Gould. [5] [6] He died on January 31, 1944.

Death

She died in 1944 at the Hotel Shelton. She was buried in the Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University, which she had built as a memorial to her first husband.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Wharton_Drexel

Mrs Henry Lehr (nee Elizabeth Drexel)

A.K.A Lady Decies ("Bessie") 1905

Giovanni Boldini -- Italian-French portrait painter

http://www.jssgallery.org/other_artists/Boldini_Giovanni/LadyDecies...

Birth: 1868 Pennsylvania, USA Death: Jun. 13, 1944 New York New York County (Manhattan) New York, USA

Daughter of Joseph Wilhelm Drexel and Lucy Wharton. Wife of John Vinton Dahlgren, Harry S, Lehr and John Graham Hope de la Poer Beresford (Lord Decies). First cousin to Saint Katharine Drexel.

Obit- Time Mag. Monday, Jun. 26, 1944 Died. Lady Decies, 72, prominent socialite of the prewar Paris-New York set; of coronary thrombosis; in Manhattan. The daughter of Philadelphia Banker Joseph William Drexel, wealthy "Bessie" was a widow at 27, at 29 married Harry Symes Lehr, the Mauve Decade's "court jester" to U.S. Society. Under his tutelage she became the lush favorite of the Four Hundred, told much if not all in a bitter book ("King Lehr" and the Gilded Age) written after his death in 1929. Among the book's revelations: Lehr was a homosexual and had consented to marry only after she offered him $25,000 a year and expenses. When she was 64, she decided she wanted to "attend the coronation," married Lord Decies (and outlived him by four months). Quitting Paris for the U.S. when the Nazis invaded, Lady Decies continued her society shenanigans, to the edification of provincial Americans. Her bejeweled presence kept society reporters scratching for phrases to surpass the brash New York Daily News's report of her wearing a tiara "the size of a nail keg."

Author: "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age (1935) "Turn of the World" (1937)

Family links:

Parents:

 Joseph William Drexel (1833 - 1888)

 Lucy Wharton Drexel (1841 - 1912)

Spouses:

 Harry Lehr (1869 - 1929)

 John Graham Hope de la Poer Horsley-Beresford (1866 - 1944)

 John Vinton Dahlgren (1868 - 1899)*

Children:

 Joseph Drexel Dahlgren (1890 - 1891)*

 John Vinton Dahlgren (1892 - 1964)*

Sibling:

 Katherine Drexel Penrose (1866 - 1918)**

 Elizabeth Drexel Dahlgren (1868 - 1944)

• Calculated relationship
  • Half-sibling

Burial: Georgetown University Washington District of Columbia District Of Columbia, USA Plot: Dahlgren Memorial Chapel

Edit Virtual Cemetery info [?]

Created by: zrustfamily Record added: Jan 05, 2008 Find A Grave Memorial# 23768034

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23768034