Businesswoman, Heiress. Lucilla Mara de Vescovi was born in Rome, Italy in 1893. Daughter of a very wealthy medicine professor of the University of Rome, descendant of an ancient noble family from the Veneto, and, from her mother’s side, from baroness De Gleria from Trieste, descendant of baroness Maria Hatvany from Hungary. His brother Silvio, medical doctor and mining engineer, survived the sinking of the Lusitania and took care of the family’s business interests in mining in Chile. She married Malcolm Whitman, an American singles tennis champion, in 1926. In 1930, following an argument about her husband's dull ties, his wife made him one from silk dress material. Following Whitman's suicide in 1932, his widow travelled through Europe, purchasing fabrics that she brought back to New York with the intention of launching a career making men's ties. Vescovi Whitman founded Countess Mara, her men's neckwear company, in 1935. While Mara was her second name, the company name might have been inspired by an 18th-century Kneller portrait of the Countess de Mar wearing a loosely tied Steinkirk cravat.
Businesswoman, Heiress. Lucilla Mara de Vescovi was born in Rome, Italy in 1893. Daughter of a very wealthy medicine professor of the University of Rome, descendant of an ancient noble family from the Veneto, and, from her mother’s side, from baroness De Gleria from Trieste, descendant of baroness Maria Hatvany from Hungary. His brother Silvio, medical doctor and mining engineer, survived the sinking of the Lusitania and took care of the family’s business interests in mining in Chile. She married Malcolm Whitman, an American singles tennis champion, in 1926. In 1930, following an argument about her husband's dull ties, his wife made him one from silk dress material. Following Whitman's suicide in 1932, his widow travelled through Europe, purchasing fabrics that she brought back to New York with the intention of launching a career making men's ties. Vescovi Whitman founded Countess Mara, her men's neckwear company, in 1935. While Mara was her second name, the company name might have been inspired by an 18th-century Kneller portrait of the Countess de Mar wearing a loosely tied Steinkirk cravat.
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See more Vir Den or De Vescovi memorials in:
- Cimitero Comunale Monumentale Campo Verano Vir Den or De Vescovi
- Rome Vir Den or De Vescovi
- Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale Vir Den or De Vescovi
- Lazio Vir Den or De Vescovi
- Italy Vir Den or De Vescovi
- Find a Grave Vir Den or De Vescovi
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