Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (22 October 1916 – 15 September 1960) was an Italian-American aristocrat, best known as the paternal grandmother of the actress and model Brooke Shields.

Torlonia was born in Rome, at Palazzo Núñez-Torlonia, the youngest daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi ^[1] and his American wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a hardware merchant from Connecticut.^{[2] [3]} The Torlonia family gained its fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.

She had three siblings:

• Donna Olimpia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Chesi (1909–1924)^{[citation needed ]}
• Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain (an aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain).^{[3] [4]}
• Donna Cristina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1913–1974)^{[3] [4]}

In February 1934, Torlonia had made her New York City debut.^[5] Torlonia enjoyed going to nightclubs and charity work, and in 1934 she led many charity fundraising efforts.^[6] Some of the charity fundraisers she was involved with include the American Auxiliary Hospital in Mougins, France,^{[7] [8]} the Italian Welfare League,^[9] New York City Cancer Institute,^{[10] [11]} the New York Diet Kitchen Association,^{[12] [13]} the Babies Hospital of the City of New York,^[14] Soldiers and Sailors Club of New York,^[15] New York Exchange for Woman's Work,^[16] Woman's Auxiliary of the Osteopathic Clinic of New York,^[17] Goddard Neighborhood Centre,^[18] Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York,^[19] among others.

In 1936, Torlonia was dressed as "wealth" with a tall headdress and two hand maids at one of a nationwide set of birthday celebrations for President Roosevelt.^[20] The following year in 1937 at the Roosevelt Birthday Ball Torlonia was one of a hundred women specially dressed to celebrate the event, she was dressed as "The East", representing the Eastern United States fashion, and in attendance was the President's mother Sara Roosevelt.^{[21] [22]}

Sculptor Marino Marini created a wax portrait of Marina Torlonia in 1935.^[23]

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was married twice, her husbands being:

• Francis Xavier Shields (1909–1975), the American amateur tennis player.^[24] They married on 13 June 1940, in North Conway, New Hampshire,^[25] and divorced in 1950. The Shieldses had two children: a son, Francis Alexander Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields.
• Edward W. Slater, an architect and partner at architectural firm Slater and Chiat, whom she married on 29 December 1950.^{[26] [27]} They had one son, Edward Torlonia Slater (born 1955).

Torlonia was the paternal grandmother of American actress Brooke Shields, the daughter of her son Francis Alexander Shields.^{[28] [29]}

Torlonia died on 15 September 1960, in an automobile accident in Piacenza, Italy, shortly after leaving the wedding of her nephew Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, to princess Orsetta Caracciolo, niece of film director Luchino Visconti.^[30] Duke Raffaele Canevaro di Zoagli and his mother-in-law, Eleanor Terry, were also killed in the accident.^{[31] [32] [33]}

• 1916 births
• 1960 deaths
• House of Torlonia
• Nobility from Rome
• Italian people of American descent
• Princesses in Italy
• Italian socialites
• Road incident deaths in Italy
• Italian expatriates in the United States

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