Monday, October 27, 2008

The archduchess is now a piano teacher

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 October 27, 1928 

 It is being reported in Vienna that Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria, the youngest daughter of the late Emperor Franz Joseph, has "stoically adapted" to life in a republic. Now more than 60 years old, Marie Valerie lives in a modest flat, where she teaches piano in the morning, and does needlework in the afternoons. 

 She does her own shopping and cooking, "yet she faces life without complaint. Other members of the Imperial family have apparently "severed all bonds" with the archduchess because she has sworn "unconditional allegiance" to the Austrian republic. Members of Vienna's working community have expressed admiration for Marie Valerie's democratic ways, and see her as a "grand old lady of Austria's former glory." 

 Marie Valerie died four years before this story was published!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's quite interesting but Marie Valerie had died in 1924.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

She did ... but this story was published in Los Angeles Times.