Ava Lowle Willing
Ava Lowle Willing | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 15, 1868 |
| Died | June 9, 1958 (aged 89) |
| Spouse(s) | John Jacob Astor IV (m. 1891) Lord Ribblesdale (m. 1919) |
| Children | Vincent Astor Ava Alice Muriel |
| Parent(s) | Edward Shippen Willing Alice Barton |
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Ava Lowle Willing (September 15, 1868 – June 9, 1958) was an American socialite and the first wife of John Jacob Astor IV.
Biography
Ava Lowle Willing was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Edward Shippen Willing and his wife, the former Alice Barton. She had two siblings, Susan Ridgway Willing (Mrs. Francis Cooper Lawrence, Jr.) and John Rhea Barton Willing. She was a descendant of Edward Shippen, the second mayor of Philadelphia and a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
She married John Jacob Astor in February 1891 in Philadelphia. 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, William Vincent (b. Nov 15, 1891) and Ava Alice Muriel (b. Feb 1902). The latter child reportedly was the child of an affair Ava Astor had with a New York society figure surnamed Hatch.
On November 19 1909, Ava Astor sued her husband for divorce and March 5 1910 the State of New York decreed in her favor. Their son lived with his father before leaving to attend Harvard College. Their daughter would be raised by her mother. In the second year of Vincent's education, John Jacob became one of the RMS Titanic casualties while returning from his honeymoon with his new bride, Madeleine Talmadge Force. This event left young Vincent as one of the wealthiest men in the United States.
In 1911, Ava Astor and her daughter moved to England where she would become the second wife of Thomas Lister, Lord Ribblesdale, in 1919. Lord Ribblesdale died on October 21 1925. Ava had no children from her second marriage, and she did not remarry. Though she reclaimed her American citizenship after returning to the United States and announced to the press that she would be known as Mrs. Ribblesdale, she nonetheless continued to be known by her former title.
Lady Ribblesdale died on June 9 1958 in New York City. She left a token bequest to her son, Vincent, but the bulk of her estate was left to her daughter's four children: Prince Ivan Obolensky, Princess Sylvia von Hoffmannsthal, Romana von Hoffmannsthal, and Emily Harding.
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