Empress’ Friend Dies in Poverty.
Countess Jeanne Demadre, once belle of European courts, convent mate, and friend of Princess Eugenie, who later became wife of Napoleon III., died recently in a humble cottage in a secluded spot in South Bend, Ind. Few knew her, and none of her acquaintances realized that half a century ago she was considered a world beauty and the associate of the crowned heads of Europe.
A brief twelve-line obituary chronicled the death of the woman, giving her name as Mrs. Peter Veuve and her age as eighty-three. Her only surviving relative is her heartbroken husband.
The countess was born the daughter of Count Hippolyte Henri Demadre Desoursins, June 24, 1831, in the mansion opposite the Royal Palace in Brussels, according to the register of the Royal Church, in Brussels.
She was sent to a French convent, and there she became a friend of Princess Eugenie, who was destined later to become the wife of Napoleon III.
She left the convent when she was eighteen years old, and when she was nineteen she became the wife of a Frenchman named Baudin.
Her presentation at the court of Belgium took place shortly after she left the convent, and after her school friend Eugenie became the queen of Napoleon III., she was presented at the French court and later at the court of Queen Victoria.
She invested a fortune in De Lesseps’ Panama Canal scheme after her husband died, and later she opened a toilet shop in Paris, and, by catering to royalty, amassed another fortune. During the Franco-Prussian War, she became a nurse and was decorated with a gold medal.
Her son met with an accident in New York, and his mother came to the United States to be with him when he died. She later married Peter Veuve, a Swiss. The latter made unwise investments, and twelve years ago, practically penniless, the couple came to South Bend.