Introduction
Allene Tew (1872-1955) was an American socialite during the Gilded Age who became a European aristocrat by marriage.
Early life
Allene Tew was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on July 7, 1872.Her father, Charles Henry Tew, was a banker in Jamestown, New York, and her mother was Janet Smith. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which meant she had to show documentation that she was a descendant of someone who fought in the American Revolutionary WarBut she may have doctored the evidence in order to encourage Mrs. Astor, the self-proclaimed queen of aristocratic American society at the turn of the century, to accept her as a member of the upper class despite her middle class up bringing, pre-marital pregnancy, and shotgun wedding.
Marriages
Her first husband was Theodore R. Hostetter (1870-1902). They had three children:
- Greta Hostetter (1892-1918; married Glenn Stewart).
- Verna Hostetter (1893-1895; died in early childhood).
- Theodore R. Hostetter, Jr. (1897-1918; killed in World War I).
Her second husband was Morton Colton Nichols (1870-1932), whom she married on December 27, 1904. They divorced a year later, in 1905.
Her third husband was Anson Wood Burchard (1865-1927), Chairman of General Electric, whom she married on December 4, 1912 in London. They were listed in the Social Register. In Manhattan, they resided at 57 East 64th Street on the Upper East Side, in a townhouse designed by architect C. P. H. Gilbert (1861-1952). In Paris, they resided at 4 Rue d'Aguesseau in the 8th arrondissement.
Her fourth husband was Prince Heinrich XXXIII Reuss of Köstritz (1879-1942), whom she married on April 10, 1929 in Paris. They divorced on October 31, 1935.
Her fifth husband was Captain Count Pavel Kotzbue (1884-1966), whom she married on March 4, 1936 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was born 20 February 1884 in Kremenetz, and died in Paris on 13 September 1966. It was his first marriage.
She negotiated on behalf of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld leading up to his marriage to princess Juliana of the Netherlands because she was a friend of his mother's (Armgard von Cramm). In 1938, she became godmother to their eldest daughter, princess Beatrix.
Death
She died in Cap d'Ail, France on May 1, 1955, at the age of eighty-two.