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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

"AMERICAN GLAMOUR & QUICK WIT MADE HER A HIT"

LADY ASTOR ARRIVES IN AMERICA, GREETED BY SWARM OF REPORTERS

New York City (JFK+50) On April 19, 1922, Lady Astor* arrived here in New York from England aboard the Olympic.  She was greeted by "one of the largest groups of reporters and photographers that ever swarmed aboard a steamer."

The wife of Viscount Waldorf Astor**, a Virginia native and first woman ever elected to the House of Commons, will be traveling on to Baltimore where she will speak at the Pan-American Conference of Women.

According to the Associated Press, the Viscountess speaking "without a trace of British accent," claims she is "still an unreconstructed southerner."

Jessica Brain says Lady Astor's "American glamour and quick wit proved to be a big hit amongst the higher echelons of society."

*Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor (1879-1964) was born in Danville, Virginia & divorced her 1st husband, Robert Gould Shaw II, in 1903 moving to England where she married Waldorf Astor.  NWLA served in the House of Commons 1919-1945.

**Waldorf Astor (1879-1952) was born in New York City & settled in England in 1889.  WA attended Eton College & New College, Oxford. Served in the House of Lords 1919-1952.  WA married Nancy Shaw in 1906 & they had 5 children.

SOURCE

"Nancy Astor," by Jessica Brain, Historic U.K., www.historic-uk.com/ 

 
 
Lady Astor
Bassano & Vandyk Studios (1923)
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, D.C.