Aline, Countess of Romanones
| Aline Griffith | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dowager Countess of Romanones | |||||
| Born |
22 May 1923 Pearl River, New York, United States |
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| Spouse | Luis Figueroa y Perez de Guzmán el Bueno | ||||
| Issue |
Álvaro de Figueroa y Griffith Luis de Figueroa y Griffith Miguel de Figueroa y Griffith |
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| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| María Aline Griffith Dexter |
Doña María Aline Griffith Dexter, Dowager Countess of Romanones, spouse of a deceased Grandee of Spain (born 22 May 1923) is a Spanish-American , socialite, and writer who worked in the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a cipher clerk during World War II. She has been a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1962.
Born in Pearl River, New York, Miss Griffith (as she then was) was working as a model when she was recruited by the OSS and sent to Spain, where she later met and married her husband. According to Elizabeth McIntosh's book "she started out in Madrid in the X-2 code room in 1943, on call night and day to encipher messages. She also handled a small agent net that spied on the private secretary of a minister in the Spanish government. Most of her exciting work was done after hours when she developed an extensive social life, reporting on the gossip she had overheard after a night of partying, often with Spanish aristocracy." She married Luis Figueroa y Perez de Guzmán el Bueno, Count of Quintanilla, in 1947; a grandson of Álvaro de Figueroa, who was several times Prime Minister of Spain. They had three children:
The couple later became the Count and Countess of Romanones upon the death of her husband's grandfather, Alvaro Figueroa. She currently lives at her homes in Madrid and Pascualete, the latter of which is a country estate of her husband's family, which she has painstakingly restored.
In 2009, she was interviewed for the documentary film Garbo: The Spy about Juan Pujol, a Catalan double agent who supported Britain during World War II.
Romanones has published seven books to date: six are presented as non-fiction and one is a novel. The three Spy books all dealt with her involvement in espionage and intelligence.
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