Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi
Template:Short description Template:Infobox nobility Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (22 October 1916 – 15 September 1960), also known as Princess Marina Torlonia Shields and Princess Marina Torlonia Slater,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> was an Italian-American aristocrat and charity worker.
Family
Torlonia was born in Rome, at Palazzo Núñez-Torlonia, the youngest daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and his American wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a hardware merchant from Connecticut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The Torlonia family gained its fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.
She had three siblings:
- Donna Princess Olimpia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1909–1924)Template:Citation needed
- Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi (1911–1986), the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain (1909–2002, daughter of King Alphonso XIII).<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>
- Donna Princess Cristina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1913–1974)<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1"/>
Political and charity work
In February 1934, Torlonia made her New York City debut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Torlonia enjoyed going to nightclubs and undertaking Democratic Party-related charity work. In 1934 she led many charity fundraising efforts.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite news</ref> Some of the charity fundraisers she was involved with include the American Auxiliary Hospital in Mougins, France,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Italian Welfare League,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> New York City Cancer Institute,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the New York Diet Kitchen Association,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Babies Hospital of the City of New York,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Soldiers and Sailors Club of New York,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> New York Exchange for Woman's Work,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Woman's Auxiliary of the Osteopathic Clinic of New York,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Goddard Neighborhood Centre,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> among others.
In 1936 Torlonia was dressed as "wealth" with a tall headdress and two hand maids at one of a nationwide set of birthday celebrations for President Roosevelt.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> The following year in 1937 at the Roosevelt Birthday Ball Torlonia was one of a hundred women specially dressed to celebrate the event, she was dressed as "The East", representing the Eastern United States fashion, and in attendance was the President's mother Sara Roosevelt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref>
Sculptor Marino Marini created a wax portrait of Marina Torlonia in 1935.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Marriages
Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was married twice, her husbands being:
- Francis Xavier Shields (1909–1975), the American amateur tennis player.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They married on 13 June 1940, in North Conway, New Hampshire,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and divorced in 1950. The Shieldses had two children: a son, Francis Alexander Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields.
- Edward W. Slater, an architect and partner at architectural firm Slater and Chiat, whom she married on 29 December 1950.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They had one son, Edward Torlonia Slater (born 1955).
Torlonia was the paternal grandmother of American actress Brooke Shields, the daughter of her son Francis Alexander Shields.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Death
Torlonia died on 15 September 1960, in an automobile accident in Piacenza, Italy, shortly after leaving the wedding of her nephew Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, to princess Orsetta Caracciolo, niece of film director Luchino Visconti.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Duke Raffaele Canevaro di Zoagli and his mother-in-law, Eleanor Terry, were also killed in the accident.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>