Her obituary as it appeared in the New York Times - October October 7, 1975 - Lots of little interesting tidbits in this article - I highlighted some of my favorites.
“Princess Julia Cantacuzene, 99, Grant's Granddaughter, Dead”
Princess Julia Grant Cantacuzene, granddaughter of President Ulysses S. Grant, and long a leader in Washington society, died Sunday at her home in the Dresden Apartment House Washington. She was 99 years old.
Princess Cantacuzene was the former wife of the late Prince Michael Cantacuzene, who commanded the last regiment at Kiev during the Russian Revolution.
A founder of the Sulgrave Club, she lunched there often until 1970, and frequently held court at her home for Washington's large White Russian colony.
At a luncheon party of descendants of American Presidents in 1970, an invitation to which Alice Roosevelt Longworth declined, saying, “I'm cutting down on going out,” Princess Cantacuzene remarked, “Cutting down? Well, think of that. Why, she's only 86.” The Princess was almost 94.
As she had neared her 70th birthday, her eyes had begun to fail. She underwent five operations but at the age of 80 became blind. Two weeks before her 90th birthday, Princess Cantacuzene awoke and suddenly saw the canopy on her bed. There was sunlight, and she saw color, shadows, a chair, pictures on the wall. An unexplained medical phenomenon had dropped the retina in one eye, enabling her to partly recover her sight.
In extensive memoirs Princess Cantacuzene recalled her life in the White House and at the imperial courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg before World War 1. She was the wife of a Russian prince for 35 years, and when she returned to her native United States she was active in Republican politics.
She was a daughter of Maj. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant, son of President Grant. Her mother was the former Ida Honore, a sister of the wealthy, socially prominent Mrs. Potter Palmer of Chicago.
Julia Dent Grant was born in the White House on June 7, 1876. She remembered the taciturn, brown-bearded President Grant teaching her to make a cat’s cradle with a piece of string. When she grew up, her dark good looks, dancing ability, wit and linguistic aptitude helped her to enjoy the waltzes and gay military uniforms of imperial Vienna when her father was Minister to the Court of Emperor Francis Joseph in the eighteen-nineties.
While at Cannes with Mrs. Palmer, Miss Grant met Prince Michael Cantacuzene, a lieutenant in the Russian guards cavalry. They were married in Newport, R.I., on Sept. 25, 1899, and sailed on a private yacht for a Paris wedding trip.The Cantacuzene estates included 80,000 acres around the castle of Bouromka in the central Ukraine.
In World War I, Prince Michael became a major general and was wounded at the battle of Gumbinnen. Forced to flee during the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the couple came to the United States.
They returned to Russia briefly when General Cantacuzene joined the staff of the White Russian Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, but came once more to the United States before Admiral Kolchak's defeat.
Wrote Three Books
Princess Cantacuzene wrote extensively for magazines and newspapers, sometimes on general topics, but usually about her life abroad and in Washington and the distinguished persons she had known. She wrote three books, “Revolutionary Days,” “Russian People” and “My Life—Here and There.”
In 1934 she obtained a divorce in Sarasota, Fla., on the grounds that the Prince “failed to show interest in matrimonial duties.” He died in 1955 at the age of 79.
Surviving are two daughters. Lady Hanbury ‐ Williams of County Meath, Ireland, and Bertha Siebern of Louisville, Ky.; 6 grandchildren, 22 greatgrandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren. A son, Michael, died in 1973.
There will be a memorial service Monday at 11 A.M. in the Bethlehem Chapel of the Washington National Cathedral.”