Baroness Marie Jacqueline (Taylor) Avezzano (1879–1923)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 20 March 1879, Marie Jacqueline Taylor was the daughter of Mortimer F. Taylor and Mae Larned (Taylor) Taylor. Mortimer was a lawyer at the law firm of Taylor, Hamlin, McAdam, and Walsh, a financier in several large franchises, and a heavy stockholder in Mexican mines. His father, Morris K. Taylor, was a descendant of George Taylor of Pennsylvania, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. Mae Taylor was prominent in society circles in St. Louis, with an extensive St. Louis lineage on her maternal side. Mortimer and Mae divorced sometime about 1890 in New York. Marie’s mother married her second husband, Dr. Frederick E. Clark, a physician from Staten Island, New York, on 4 May 1898.

A quiet, intimate wedding ceremony was performed on 4 May 1901 in New York for Marie and Baron Camille Romano Avezzano, an Italian ambassador to Washington, D.C., Paris, and Rio de Janeiro before he left for Japan. Among the significant secret missions Baron Avezzano was assigned was to bring to safety King Nicholas and his family from Montenegro at the start of World War I. Baron Camille Romano Avezzano was born 6 October 1867 in Naples, Italy, and died 15 June 1949 in Eboli, Salerno, Italy.

This union produced one daughter, Yolanda Avezzano, who later married the counselor of the Belgian embassy in Paris, on 2 January 1927 in Washington, D.C. Yolanda was born 24 August 1902 in Peking, China, and died 15 August 1985 in Belgium.

Baroness Marie Jacqueline Avezzano never returned to the United States and died on 10 October 1923 in Paris.

Written by Shirley Wadell
September 2024

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