Margaret Phipps Boegner

{{Infobox person

| name =Margaret Phipps Boegner

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|11|17}}

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| death_date = {{death date and age|2006|9|16|1906|11|17}}

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| nationality = American

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| occupation = philanthropist

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| spouse = {{plainlist|

  • J. Gordon Douglas Jr.
  • Etienne Boegner

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| children = 2

| parents = John Shaffer Phipps
Margarita Celia Grace

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}}

Margaret Phipps Boegner (November 17, 1906 – September 16, 2006) was an American heiress and philanthropist.

Biography

=Early life=

Margaret Helen Phipps was born on November 17, 1906.Dennis Hevesi, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/obituaries/19boegner.html?_r=0 Margaret Phipps Boegner, 99, Who Founded Old Westbury Gardens, Is Dead ], The New York Times, September 19, 2006 Her father was John Shaffer Phipps (1874–1958) and her mother, Margarita Celia Grace (1876-1957).H. Eric Semler, [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/style/life-style-sunday-outing-on-two-grand-estates-history-and-horticulture.html LIFE STYLE: Sunday Outing; On Two Grand Estates, History and Horticulture], The New York Times, June 4, 1989 She had three brothers, John H. H. Phipps, Michael Grace Phipps (1910–1973) and Hubert Beaumont Phipps (1906–1969). Her paternal grandfather was Henry Phipps Jr. (1839–1930) and her maternal grandfather was Michael P. Grace (1842–1920).James deVries, [http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/2010/print Peggy Phipps Boegner's Jewels to Appear in a Mysterious Sale], New York Social Diary, She grew up at Old Westbury Gardens in Old Westbury, New York.

=Philanthropy=

After her parents' deaths in 1957 and 1958, she developed the Old Westbury Gardens and decided to open her family residence to the public.Paul J. Mateyunas, Long Island's Gold Coast, Arcadia Publishing, 2012, p. 54 [https://books.google.com/books?id=D_u7mGX21kMC&dq=%22phipps+boegner%22&pg=PA54] She became Founder and Chairperson of the Old Westbury Gardens non-profit organization.Paula Deitz, Of Gardens: Selected Essays, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, p. 185 [https://books.google.com/books?id=H9xzdCNIXvYC&dq=%22Margaret+Phipps+Boegner%22&pg=PA185]

She was featured in an episode of America's Castles.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3495338/ imdb]

=Personal life=

She married J. Gordon Douglas Jr. in 1930. They had a son and a daughter:

They divorced in 1947.

In 1951, she married Etienne Boegner, a French businessman and diplomat, and the son of Marc Boegner (1881–1970), a prominent member of the French Resistance and the first President of the Protestant Federation of France.Robert O. Paxton (ed.), Nicholas Wahl (ed.), De Gaulle and the United States: A Centennial Reappraisal, Paris, France: Editions Berg International, 1994, p. 37, [https://books.google.com/books?id=elrKgnPPYHQC&dq=%22etienne+Boegner%22&pg=PA37] He died in 1985.

She died in 2006. On June 30, 2010, some of her jewels were sold in an auction house in East Moriches, New York.

Bibliography

  • Peggie Phipps Boegner, Richard Gachot, Halcyon Days: An American Family Through Three Generations (New York, New York: Harry N Abrams, 2007).

References