Mary Warburg

Mary Whelan Prue Warburg (December 6, 1908 – March 8, 2009) was a philanthropist and member (by marriage) of the Warburg banking family.^[1]

Born in Colorado City, Texas and raised on her father's sheep ranch near Hope, New Mexico in the last days of the New Mexico Territory and the early days of statehood, Mary Whelan Prue reportedly fired a shotgun at Pancho Villa as he raided the ranch, but missed him. She was 7 years old.

Early career and first marriage

She left school in her early teens, and, with her elder sister, Edwina, settled in New York City, where they worked as fashion models. Mary was later an assistant fashion editor at Vogue. An early marriage, to Boston artist Richard Currier, ended in divorce in 1936. Her only child from this marriage, Stephen Currier, disappeared with his wife in 1967 aboard a private plane flying over the Caribbean Sea. Their three children survived them.

Marriage into Warburg family

In 1939, she married Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg, a founder of the Jewish Museum; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); and the American Ballet, the precursor of the New York City Ballet. They had two children, Daphne and David.

Mr. Warburg, an arts patron, was the son of Felix Warburg, of the Warburg banking family, and his wife Frieda Schiff, daughter of banker and philanthropist Jacob Henry Schiff. Mary Warburg supported many charitable organizations, including the Henry Street Settlement, the United Negro College Fund, the Institute of International Education; the Association for Homemaker Service (a social welfare agency) and the Hole in the Wall Camps, the network of camps for seriously ill children founded by Paul Newman. She was also long active in Democratic Party circles.

World War II

During World War II, Mary Warburg worked with the United States Office of Inter-American Affairs.

Later years

Mary Warburg was widowed in 1992. Her elder sister, with whom she had decamped to New York so many years earlier, Edwina (the widow of Baron Leo d'Erlanger), had died in 1994.^[2]

Survivors

Mary Warburg died at age 100. She was survived by her daughter, Daphne Astor of Hatley St George, England and her son, David Warburg, of Sebastopol, California, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

References

1. ^ Fox, Margalit (March 11, 2009). "Mary Warburg, a Noted Philanthropist, Dies at 100". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/nyregion/12warburg.html. Retrieved March 13, 2009. 
2. ^ Valynseele, Joseph; Mars, Henri-Claude (2004). Le Sang Des Rothschild. Paris: L'Intermediaire des chercheurs et curieux. p. 274. ISBN 2908003228. 

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Name	Warburg, Mary
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Date of birth	December 6, 1908
Place of birth
Date of death	March 8, 2009
Place of death