The Dowager Duchess

I was poking around and remembered that I had referenced the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the former Deborah Mitford on several other occasions.

She became the Duchess when her husband’s older brother died during World War II. At that time, he was married to Kathleen (Kick) Kennedy, the older sister of JFK. She died several years later in a plane crash and is buried next to her late husband at Chatsworth. They spent their honeymoon at a cottage on the Chatsworth property. In a book entitled “The Englishwoman’s House”, by Derry Moore, one of the women he interviewed is Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, who had this to say about the house where she lived:
You can sit in the drawing-room on the first floor and be unaware that a thousand people are in the house at the same time. So well built is it, that the faintest murmur, like a distant sea, is all you hear…  I also found some more images of the young Duchess, who was really quite a beauty. Here she is in 1941. Attending an event in 1954. Becoming a Dame Commander of The Royal Victorian Order, bestowed by her friend, HM QEII. The Duke and Duchess’s 50th Wedding Anniversary, which they shared with 500 other couples celebrating theirs. An elegant and, no doubt, charming Lady.