Baroness Ella van Heemstra
| Ella van Heemstra | |
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| Baroness van Heemstra | |
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Issue
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| Born |
June 12, 1900 Velp, Gelderland, Netherlands |
| Died | August 26, 1984 (aged 84) Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Socialite and volunteer worker |
Ella, Baroness van Heemstra, DStJ (12 June 1900 – 26 August 1984) was a Dutch aristocrat and the mother of the actress Audrey Hepburn.
Ella van Heemstra was a Dutch and the third of five daughters of Baron Aarnoud van Heemstra, who was mayor of Arnhem from 1910 to 1920 and served as Royal Governor of Suriname from 1921 to 1928. Ella's mother was Elbrig Willemine Henriette, Baroness van Asbeck (1873–1939), who was a granddaughter of jurist Count Dirk van Hogendorp. She spent much of her childhood at Huis Doorn.
Van Heemstra was married and divorced twice, and had three children.
At age nineteen, van Heemstra married Jonkheer (Esquire) Hendrik Gustaaf Adolf Quarles van Ufford (1894-1955). They divorced in 1925. Van Heemstra had two sons from this marriage, who were both born in the Dutch East Indies:
Van Heemstra married secondly Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889-1980) (later Hepburn-Ruston) on 24 September 1926 at Batavia, Java, Dutch East Indies. They were divorced on 24 June 1939 and had one daughter:
In the early 1960s she lived in Los Angeles with her friend Leonard Gershe and then later in San Francisco where she did volunteer work for soldiers coming back from Vietnam. When she visited Los Angeles she was entertained by friends like George Cukor, Mrs. Mildred Knopf (wife of Edwin H. Knopf) and Veronique Peck. She spent the rest of her life in her daughter's house in Tolochenaz where she died in 1984. Audrey accompanied her mother's body to the Netherlands for funeral.
Ella was named Dame of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem by Queen Elizabeth II on 7 September 1971.
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