Ava Lowle Willing
| The Right Honourable The Baroness Ribblesdale |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Ava Lowle Willing September 15, 1868 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | June 9, 1958 (aged 89) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place |
Trinity Church Cemetery Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Net worth |
 US $3 million (equivalent to $equivalent to $24,647,000 in 2016 billion in 2016) |
| Spouse(s) |
John Jacob Astor IV (m. 1891–1910; divorced) Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale (m. 1919–1925; his death) |
| Children |
William Vincent Astor Ava Alice Muriel Astor |
| Parent(s) | Edward Shippen Willing Alice Bell Barton |
| Relatives | Prince Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky (grandson) |
Ava Lowle Willing (September 15, 1868 – June 9, 1958) was an American socialite. She was the first wife of Colonel John Jacob Astor IV and later married Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale.
Ava Lowle Willing was born on September 15, 1868 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Edward Shippen Willing (1822-1906) and Alice Bell Barton (1833-1903). She had three elder siblings: (1) Susan Ridgway Willing (1862-1940) who married on November 3, 1899, Francis Cooper Lawrence Jr. (1858-1904), they had no issue; (2) John Rhea Barton Willing (1864-1913) he died from pneumonia unmarried with no issue; and (3) Edward Shippen Willing Jr. (1867-1873) he died at age six.
On February 17, 1891, she married Colonel John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV (1864–1912), son of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1829–1892) and Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn (1830–1908), at her parents mansion at 510 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They went on a 5-week honeymoon in Europe. The newlywed couple was given, among many lavish gifts, a furnished townhouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Though the marriage was tumultuous, the Astors had two children:
The family lived in their New York townhouse at 840 Fifth Avenue, their 2,000 acre country estate, Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York, and Beechwood, their Newport, Rhode Island mansion. By 1896, Mrs. Ava Astor had become socially active in England. She had a country estate, Sutton Place in Guildford, Surrey, and a townhouse on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, London.
...
Wikipedia