Grand Duke Dimitri engaged to American heiress

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October 31, 1926

Miss Audrey Emery, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Alfred Anson, is to marry Grand Duke Dimitri of Russia, reports the New York Times.

Her family learned the news yesterday "following cable messages to relatives from France," where Miss Emery and her parents have been staying for some time.

One message was sent by Miss Emery to the housekeeper at the Anson family home on East 68th Street in New York.  The housekeeper was formerly Miss Emery's nurse.  Another cable was sent to Miss Emery's sister, Mrs. Benjamin Moore, who lives in Syosset, Long Island.

Family and friends were caught off guard by the news as friends of the family had no idea that the Grand Duke and Miss Emery were acquainted.

Miss Emery is one of five children of the late John J. Emery of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mrs. Anson, who married Mr. Anson, a younger brother of the Earl of Lichfield three years after the death of Mr. Emery.

Grand Duke Dimitri, the only son of the late Grand Duke Paul, killed by the Bolsheviks in January 1919, and the late Princess Alexandra of Greece, has lived in Paris since the Revolution. He is the "personal representative" of Grand Duke Kirill since Kirill declared that he had succeeded to the throne of Russia.

Grand Duchess Alexandra died soon after giving birth to Dimitri.  He and his older sister,  Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, were raised by Grand Duchess Elisabeth and Grand Duke Sergei, a brother of Grand Duke Paul.   Sergei was killed by an assassin's bomb in 1906.

He and Prince Felix Youssoupoff were believed to be responsible for the death of the monk, Rasputin.   The Russian people appeared to be pleased with their actions as they had resented Rasputin's "strange influence" over the Imperial family.

Nicholas II banished Dimitri from Russia, an order that saved his life after Nicholas abdicated, and the Revolution succeeded in bringing down the 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty.

According to the AP, Miss Emery "has a reputation as a huntress when she bagged a pair of lions" while on a big-game hunt last year in Africa.   Grand Duke Dimitri is 34 years old.  

Miss Emery is not the first  American woman to be linked to Dimitri.  In 1914, he was said to be infatuated with Princess Beloselsky, the former Susie Whittier of Boston.  A few years later, it was reported that he was willing to renounce his rights to the throne to marry an American girl, Miss Durham, whom he had met in St. Petersburg.

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