Olga de Rotth (von Gillming)
Born Olga Alojzia Melania Katalin Gillming, on the 4th November 1878 in Ludbreg, Croatia, Austria-Hungary. She was a roman catholic.
Her father was Josef von Gillming, owner and rentier of Ludbreg Castle in Croatia, and his mother Katherina von Waechter Gillming.
Olga had a step father after her natural father died early. He was Professor Jozsef Bokor, a teacher, philosopher and noted editor of encyclopaedias, including that of the Great Pallas edition in Hungary. Her step brother was Ervin Bokor, a company director working in finance. He also authored a book about his adventurous escape from Russian war prisoners camp in Siberia, in 1916.
Olga was well brought up in a cultured and spiritual family home. She studied drama in 1894 at the Academy of Theatre, then drawing and draughtsmanship teaching in 1896-97 at the School of Drawing in Budapest. As a maiden, she and her cousin, Jozsa, attended dancing and similar social events in Budapest, chaperoned by her mother. Of these events contemporary newspapers reported in their social columns. Horse riding in country estates was another pastime of hers.
As a young woman, she was owner of land and she has financed the building of mansion blocks on these plots in Budapest. These were mainly in the Lagymanyos or Kelenfold district, and were mostly designed by her first husband, the notable architect Jozsef Fischer. They married on the 21th September 1900 in Budapest. This marriage ended in divorce in 1907.
Later, referred to as the beautiful countess of Hungary, she married George Andrews Moriarty Junior, a diplomat, then U. S. consular agent and secretary in Fiume, Austria-Hungary. They wed in the St. Giles district of London, England, at a civil ceremony, on 18 March 1908. They had a child, Lilias, who was taken to America at an early age. She remained in the custody of her father in the course of an ensuing divorce procedure.
Olga and her supporting step father sailed back to Europe, and after the divorce in 1911, she married third time, to Lorand Roth von Pongyelok in Hungary. The wedding took place in the Budapest Varosligeti Fasori Reformed Church on the 3rd of July 1912. Roth was a ministry official for agriculture, with a flair for hunting. They had a son, thus half-sibling of Lilias, Lorand junior (1913-1941).
She lived in their Budapest homes and at their estate in Koszeg, a town in west Hungary. Olga's absence or presence at the upbringing of her daughter in Newport, R.I., is not known at the time of writing this account. But years after the early and tragic death of her son, and that of her last husband's in April 1923, as a widow, she emigrated to the U. S. in 1952 and lived with Lilias for several years in Newport before moving to Boston. She became an American citizen in 1954 and died in 1965, aged 86.
She was initially laid to rest in Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery. In 1970, her remains were interred in the grave of the parents of her second husband, in Newport. The stone is not, only remembrance, marking her name.
Lilias Moriarty Johnson
A brave, sporting lady of many talents, and with compassionate persuasions throughout her life.
Her father was George Andrews Moriarty, an American diplomat and genealogist, and her mother Olga Alojzia Melania Katalin Gillming of Budapest, hailing from Croatia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Her parents divorced early with some acrimony. As her father was granted her custody, she was raised by her paternal relatives in Newport, Rhode Island. Hence she adopted the "Sheffield" name that was of her paternal grandmother's.
Her maternal ancestry can be traced back to her grandparents, Josef von Gillming, owner and rentier of Ludbreg Castle in Croatia, and his wife, Katherina von Waechter Gillming.
....
The absence or presence at the upbringing of Olga's daughter is not known at the time of writing this account. But years after she widowed, she emigrated to the U. S. in 1952 and lived with Lilias for several years in Newport before moving to Boston. She became an American citizen in 1954 and died in 1965, aged 86.
Young Lilias grew up with the Moriarty relatives. She was educated at Miss May's school in Boston and at the Spence school in New York, and finished her education abroad. She became a good horsewoman, a good shot and an excellent aviatrix. In 1929 she was voted "the most fascinating Young Sportswoman" by a panel of distinguished judges and was photographed by Edward Steichen for a magazine article about her, promoting Woodbury's facial soap.
As she was a pilot, it is little wonder that she first married another pilot, Crocker Snow, in October 1931. The Popular Aviation 1932 January edition thus reports their fresh union: "An aerial honeymoon is to follow the marriage of Miss Sheffield Moriarty with Mr. Crocker Snow of Boston. Both are enthusiastic pilots.” However, they divorced on the 7th April 1934, in Reno, because their strong personalities clashed more than they meshed.
Lilias married second time on July 14, 1934, at the United Congregational Church, to Pierrepont Johnson, a keen yachtsman, in Newport, Rhode Island. They lived at Ridge Mere on LeRoy Avenue. The couple had a son, Pierrepont junior, born in 1935. The boy was doing well in Fessenden School, Kieve, with reports of good swimming and marksmanship. This marriage of Lilias lasted until her husband passed away on May 6, 1963 in a New York hospital after a long illness.
This remarkable lady was kind to animals. Herself owned several rare white Pekingese dogs in the sixties. The Potter League perpetually remembers her as member of their Forever Friends Society. Lilias M Johnson* (* deceased member) have made an exceptional commitment to the future of all animals by including the Potter League in her estate plan.
Lilias was a passionate helper of Hungarian refugees following the 1956 uprising. A continuing need for more and more clothing and money for Hungarian refugees was emphasized by her at the time, when she was sparking the collection in the Newport area by First Aid for Hungary. Inc., of which Herbert Hoover was honorary chairman.
The Newport Daily News from Newport, Rhode Island, thus reports on November 19, 1956:
“The most recent figures on the refugee influx into Austria approximate 30,000; and another 6,000 are reported in Yugoslavia, with more streaming across the borders all the time, Mrs. Johnson said. Many are children and aged persons, and they need not only clothing but food, medical supplies and lodgings. This constitutes too great a financial problem for Austria to handle alone. Contributions, which are tax-deductible, may be sent to First Aid for Hungary, Inc. in care of Mrs. Johnson at "Ridge mere" on LeRoy Avenue. While the donations of clothing in response to the recent appeal "have been simply unbelievable," Mrs. Johnson said, they still cannot get enough. Clothing given here is taken to New York by truck and delivered to the organization headquarters, were it is baled. It is then carried without charge by Pan-American Airways to Vienna. The company makes two flights a day, none without its shipment of relief clothing. Representatives of the agency in Vienna meet the planes and move the shipments to a warehouse to be distributed where and when needed. Most is given to refugees, but the agency is steadily trying to get some much-needed clothing into Hungary itself, as opportunity offers. Some gift funds are being used to repair and make habitable the old Nazi camps where many of the refugees are being housed, which are in a dilapidated condition. The several organizations trying to help the Hungarians are working together in Austria with no sense of rivalry and with wonderful cooperation and unity, Mrs. Johnson reports. The entire emphasis is on filling the need, and none at all on reaping the credit.”
This is to show how passionately she cared when she wrote to the editors of the Life magazine early in 1957:
LIFE 7 Jan 1957
Letters to the editors
Exodus to Liberty
After their indescribable experiences at home and their long, bewildering flight, it seemed to me that Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker's reception of Hungarian refugees falls a bit short of the responsibilities of a good host - keeping them out in a cold November wind and lecturing them on the meaning of liberty when they had a few short days ago seen their families dying for it.
LILIAS M. JOHNSON
Newport, R.I.
Louise Dittemore was the daughter of John Valentine Dittemore & Edith Louise Bingham.
She married Count Alfonso Alfau from Spain. Her second marriage was to George A. Moriarty Jr. on 30 Sept 1930 in York Co., Maine. She was divorced but she was intitled to keep her "Countess" till she remarried. Thus I did not use the title as she had lost it by her death. Also, I used the date that Social Security have for her birth month & year & for her death.
ANCESTORS:
1-John Valentine Dittemore & Edith Louise Bingham
2-John W. Dittemore 1843-1902 & Mary Ellen Cress 1847-1936
3-George Washington Dittemore 1812-1864 & Margaretta Ann Johnson 1814-1863
4-John Michael Dittemore 1763-1839 & Elizabeth Nehs 1771-1837
6-John Hartman Dittemore 1735-1782 & Anna Catherine Hertzel
REV WAR GRANDFATHERS:
John Hartman Dittemore (7th Massachuttes--Buried West Point Military Cemetery, West Point,
New York.)
Michael Nehs Jr. (Virginia Militia--Buried at St. James Lutheran Churchyard, St. James, Greene Co., Tennessee.)
I [Linda J Morris, the FindAGrave person] share Grandparents from Michael Nehs Jr. & Elizabeth Margretha Zirkle up on Nehs and 3 generations and Zirkle 4 generations. I also come from John Hartmans daughter Lydia and her brother married my widowned Grandmother, Mary Berger Yeakley.