Louise Vanderbilt

Louise Holmes Anthony Vanderbilt (September 4, 1854 – August 21, 1926) was an American heiress and socialite. Her philanthropist causes included educational opportunities and entertainments for the local community near her Hyde Park, New York home, the annual Thanksgiving dinner for the newsboys in Newport, Rhode Island, several New York City based charities, and the Anthony Home which she founded in 1913. Early life Louise was born Louisa Holmes Anthony on September 4, 1854, probably in Brooklyn, New York. She was the youngest daughter of Catherine (née Holmes) Anthony (1824–1882) and Charles Lee Anthony (d. 1874), both of whom were born in Rhode Island. Louise had two sisters, Rosalie DeWolf (1844–1929), who married William Post, and Catherine "Kate" Lee (1845–1907), who married Henry Anthon Heiser. Her father was a socially prominent and wealthy dry-goods merchant in New York City under the firm name of Anthony & Hall. Among her extended family members were nieces Rose Post Howard, who married Thomas H. Howard (a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant), and Margaret Van Alen Bruguiére, who married James Laurens Van Alen (a grandson of William Backhouse Astor Jr. and Caroline Schermerhorn Astor). Personal life In 1872, Louise married Alfred Torrance (1852–1887), the son of Daniel Torrance and Sophia Johnson (née Vanderbilt) Torrance. His sisters were Adelaide Torrance, who married Meredith Howland, and Marie Torrance, who married John A. Hadden Jr. Alfred, a grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, was a horseman of some reputation in London, Paris, and New York. She divorced Torrance in 1877.