Szechenyi, Gladys Vanderbilt, Countess, 1887-1965

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1887

Death 1965

Active 0193

Birth 1887-08-27

Death 1965-01-29

Biographical notes:

Gladys Moore Vanderbilt, Countess Széchenyi (August 27, 1886 – January 29, 1965), was an American heiress from the Vanderbilt family and wife of Hungarian Count László Széchenyi. Her parents were Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Claypoole Gwynne; her father was the president and chairman of the New York Central Railroad and part of the prominent Vanderbilt family.

She grew up in the one of the Vanderbilt family mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City and at their summer "cottage" called The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. She inherited about $25 million from her father's estate and a further $5 million from her mother's estate; she also inherited The Breakers. In 1948, as a widow, she leased The Breakers to the Preservation Society of Newport County for $1 a year.

On January 27, 1908, she married Hungarian Count László Széchenyi (1879–1938) in New York City.

Countess Széchenyi died in 1965. In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased The Breakers for $365,000 from her heirs.