Dorothy Gould Burns

Dorothy Gould Burns (1904 - July 6, 1969), known as Countess de Graffenried de Villars, was the subject of a court case determining when a United States citizen who lives overseas gives up rights to citizenship. The probate of her will was argued by the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit as United States of America v. William L. Matheson, Executor of the Will of Dorothy Gould.

Biography

Dorothy Gould was the granddaughter of the railroad magnate Jay Gould. She was born in the United States in 1904 to Frank Jay Gould and Helen Margaret Kelly. In 1919 she left the United States for Europe, never to re-establish residence in the United States.[1]

On May 5, 1925 she married a Swiss aristocrat, Baron Roland Graffenried de Villars.[2][3] Roland was the third son of Count Friedrich Johann Prosper Graffenried de Villars and Countess de Diesbach-Belleroche.[4]

They had two daughters and divorced in 1936. Through this period she traveled as a citizen of the United States, relying upon a United States passport until 1934. Thereafter, due to the concededly erroneous refusal of the Passport Office to grant a new passport, she traveled upon an "affidavit in lieu of passport" issued by the American Consulate. When the Germans occupied France, she returned to the United States in 1941 on a newly issued American passport but remained only briefly, soon departing for Cuba where she met her second husband, Archibald Burns, a Mexican national of Scottish parents. She followed him to Mexico where they married in 1944.[1]

She died on July 6, 1969.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "United States v. Matheson". United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. January 16, 1976. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  2. ↑ "Married". Time magazine. May 18, 1925. Retrieved 2010-08-12. Miss Dorothy Gould, 21, daughter of Frank Jay Gould and his onetime wife, Princess Vlora, now the divorced wife of Prince Houreddin Vlora of Albania, to Baron de Graffenried de Villars, 25, of Switzerland; in Paris.
  3. ↑ Edward J. Renehan, Jr.. Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould. ISBN 0-465-06886-3. Frank Jay Gould's daughter Dorothy married a Swiss baron, Roland Graffenried de Villars, in early 1925. Their marriage ended in divorce but produced two ...
  4. ↑ Thomas Pritchett de Graffenried (1925). History of the de Graffenried family from 1191 A. D. to 1925. He was married in the church of Notre Dame de Passy at Paris on May 5, 1925 to Dorothy Gould, a very charming, ... de Villars, third son of Friedrich Johann Prosper and the Countess de Diesbach-Belleroche. was born at Fribourg, May 5, ...
  5. ↑ "Dorothy Burns, 58, Heiress To French Resort Founder". United Press International in the New York Times. July 7, 1969. Retrieved 2010-08-14. Mrs. Dorothy Burns, who inherited hotels ... Mrs. Burns was the daughter of Frank Jay Gould, founder of this coastal ...