Princess Margaret Boncompagni

Prince Andrea Boncompagni



    Memorial Day - Some snapshots and video on YouTube.

    Recent deaths

    Twenty-five years ago – 1987 – Hopedale High Class of 1977 will meet at Cobblestones to plan
    tenth reunion. Call Sandy Young for more information.     Activities at the town park this week (June
    26) include necklace making, banner art, rainbows, key chains and Frisbee golf.      President
    Reagan challenges Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall.”     Dusky seaside
    sparrow becomes extinct.

    Fifty years ago – 1962 – Hopedale School Report Cards to be Processed by Computer     School
    Report on Air Raid Procedures Given in Hopedale     Draper Corporation Has Acquired Granite State
    Mowing Machine Company     Historic Draper Corporation Bell Has Rung for 75 Years     Anna
    Slesersby becomes the first victim of Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler.     The
    New Yorker has published the first of three excerpts of Rachel Carson’s upcoming book, Silent
    Spring.

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                                      Set Up Chapel for Wedding of Miss Draper

                                Great Ballroom of Washington Residence Transformed for

                                            Marriage of Massachusetts Girl to Italian Prince

                                                   Cardinal Gibbons Will Perform Ceremony

                                                       Mrs. Draper Gives Pre-nuptial Dinner

    Washington, D.C. – The great tapestried ballroom in the home of Mrs. William F. Draper of Hopedale,
    Mass, and Washington has been turned into a Catholic chapel for the wedding of Miss Margaret
    Preston Draper, her daughter, and Prince Andrea Boncompagni of Rome at noon tomorrow.

    American Beauty roses, white chrysanthemums, and quantities of the rarest ferns carry out the colors
    of Italy in the ballroom and drawing rooms, but the altar- which has been brought in from St. Patrick’s
    Church- before which the bride will stand, will show between a drapery or blanket of white roses 15
    feet long.

    A throne has been erected and draped with cardinal red, from which Cardinal Gibbons will perform
    the marriage ceremony, while a special altar will serve for the Rev. Fr. Russell, who will celebrate a
    low nuptial mass. Especial arrangements have also been made for the large group of prominent
    Catholic clergymen who will lend dignity to the event.

    An organ has also been placed behind a lattice work of flowers in one corner of the ballroom, and will
    furnish the only music for the occasion. Thousands of American Beauty roses and white
    chrysanthemums have been used with green ferns to form the Italian colors, and there will also be
    hundreds of the rarest orchids placed to good advantage in the drawing rooms and dining room.

    The wedding breakfast will be served tomorrow with the cardinal and other churchmen, the Italian
    Ambassador and Countess Macchi de Cellere, the Russian Ambassador and Mme. Bakhmeteff, and
    members of the bridal party at the bride’s table, for which Mrs. Draper’s chef will provide the dainties.

    The guests will be served from the famous gold service presented to Miss Draper’s maternal
    grandmother, while her grandfather, Gen. William Preston of Kentucky was minister to Spain, and
    which was later used in Rome while the late Gen. Draper, the bride’s father, was ambassador to Italy,
    and from which many of the royalty of Europe and notable folk of this and the old world have dined.

    Miss Draper wore tonight at the prenuptial dinner given by her mother, the diamond coronet which
    was presented by Prince Boncompagni as a wedding present. It arrived from Italy by special carrier a
    few days ago, quite unexpected by the bride. With it she wore a rich gown of velvet from the Lyons
    looms of 50 years ago, and the pearl necklace of a single short strand, presented to her by her father
    the year she was presented at court in London.

    Mrs. Draper’s guests at dinner tonight, besides her daughter and Prince Boncompagni, were the
    Italian Ambassador and his wife, the Russian ambassador and his wife, the chief justice of the
    Supreme Court and Mrs. Edward Douglas White, who on Sunday served as proxy god-parents for the
    parents of the bridegroom at the baptism of Miss Draper at St. Patrick’s Church; Fr. Russell, who
    officiated on that occasion; Mr. and Mrs. Louis Curtis of Boston; Mr. and Mrs. Dana Osgood of
    Hopedale, Mass.; Miss Clover, who is to serve as maid of honor; the Misses Blair, who will be maids;
    Mr. Brambilla, the best man for the prince, and others to the number of 30. The Boston Herald,
    October 25, 1916.

    Newspaper articles on the wedding and other events in Margaret's life up through 1925.

    The prince and princess divorced in 1923. A few years ago, a nephew of Margaret told me that the
    prince took his girlfriend along on the honeymoon. It seems that the marriage wasn’t his idea. After
    the divorce, he married Blanceflor de Bildt, a woman from a prominent Swedish family. I presume she
    had been the other member of the honeymoon trio. Here’s a link to the story of Prince Andrea and
    Blanceflor, from the website of a foundation that she established.

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