Person:Grace Wilson (15)

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Grace Graham Vanderbilt ( Wilson; September 3, 1870 – January 7, 1953) was an American socialite. She was the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III. She was one of the last Vanderbilts to live the luxurious life of the "head of society" that her predecessors such as Alice and Alva Vanderbilt enjoyed.^[1]

She was born Grace Graham Wilson on September 3, 1870, she was the youngest child of New York banker Richard T. Wilson.

She eloped with Cornelius "Neily" Vanderbilt III in 1896. This led to a violent disagreement between Neily and his father, which lasted many years. Neily and Grace Vanderbilt remained married for the rest of their lives and had two children, Cornelius Vanderbilt IV, who would marry seven times, and a daughter, Grace Vanderbilt II (September 25, 1899 – January 28, 1964).

She and her husband inherited Neily's grandfather's famous New York City townhouse, one of the biggest homes in the city, besides Neily's father's mansion. The mansion had over 80 rooms and a massive art gallery. Upon seeing the home for the first time she exclaimed "Why, it's the Black Hole of Calcutta" and she hired architect Horace Trumbauer to redo all of the rooms, keeping only the large malachite vase in the great hall. The renovation costs totaled $500,000.

Following the War, she and her husband frequently returned to Europe, becoming friends and guests of numerous members of European royalty including Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and his brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, King Albert I of Belgium, Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Queen Marie of Romania, Reza Pahlavi of Iran, and every British monarch since Queen Victoria.

In 1940, Because he could no longer afford it, Neily sold his Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City to members of the Astor family but remained living there until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing in Miami Beach, Florida aboard his yacht in 1942. Following Neily's death Grace Vanderbilt was forced to move out of their massive Fifth Avenue mansion, which by that time had been the only private residence in that part of town and was surrounded by skyscrapers on all sides, and moved into a mansion at 1048 Fifth Avenue, which she called "The Gardener's cottage.

Grace lived another eleven years, and she died on January 7, 1953. They are buried together in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp on Staten Island, New York.

1. ↑ Grace Vanderbilt, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   MacColl, Gail, and Carol McD. Wallace. To Marry an English Lord. (New York: Workman Publishing, 1989).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Grace Graham "Her Grace" Wilson Vanderbilt, in Find A Grave.
4.   The New York Times. (New York, New York)
   11 Jan 1953.

   400 At Rites Mourn Mrs. C. Vanderbilt
   
   Society, Civic Leaders Attend St. Thomas' Service Here - Burial in Staten Island
   
   Leaders of society and civic and international affairs were among the 400 persons who attended the funeral service yesterday at St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church, Fifth Avenue and Fifty-third Street, for Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, widow of Brig. Gen. Vanderbilt, who died on Wednesday. The Rev. Dr. Roelif H. Brooks, rector of St. Thomas', officiated at the service. After the processional, "Hark, Hark, My Soul," sung by the robed male choir, Dr. Brooks read the scriptural sentences that begin, "I am the Resurrection and the life." The choir then sang the Twenty-third Psalm, before the rector read the lesson from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. Leaving the pulpit to face the altar, Dr. Brooks then recited the Creed, in which the congregation joined, and continued with the prescribed prayers of the service. At the conclusion of the hymn, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus," Dr. Brooks removed a bouquet of white lilies from a vase on the altar and placed it upon the coffin, as he recited the prayers of the benediction. The service concluded with the recessional, "Abide With Me," by the choir. Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was among the mourners, who included also Mr. and Mrs. Myron C. Taylor, Vincent Astor, Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Serge Obolensky, Robert Goelet, Mrs. Ogden Reid, Mr. and Mrs. James A. Farley and Walter Hoving. Henry S. Hooker, legal adviser to Mrs. Vanderbilt, led the ushers at the service. They included William Wickham Hoffman, Austen Gray, J. Henry Alexandre, Morin S. Hare, Henry Fletcher, Dudley P. Gilbert, A. Algars, Joseph Clark Baldwin and William Goadby Loew. Members of the family attending included Mrs. Robert Livingston Stevens, Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., Mrs. Charles McCain Jr. of Shreveport, La., Countess Laszlo Szechenyi, sister of General Vanderbilt, Miss Grace Stevens, Charles S. McCain 3d, and Henry Davis McCain. The members of the family and other mourners left in ten cars to be present at the burial in the Vanderbilt family mausoleum in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp, S. I.