In America
In December 1955, Caradja received a visa to come to the United States; soon after landing, she appeared on the Dave Garroway show. She resided in the U.S. for more than 35 years, mainly in the town of Comfort (in the Hill Country of Texas), but also in Baltimore, Maryland and in Kansas City. While traveling across America, speaking at various venues, she found more than five hundred of the former prisoners of war she knew from Romania. She organized a reunion in Dallas, Texas on August 28, 1972, an event that continued to be held each year for many years, with the Princess as the guest of honor and main speaker. On August 27, 1976, during the U.S. bicentennial year, she helped present a Peace Monument for the Freedoms Foundation at the Valley Forge National Historical Park; in January 1977 she was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal by the Foundation.
In 1978 she befriended Ottomar Berbig, an antiques dealer in West Berlin. The princess was keen to adopt Berbig, as her family had no male heirs to carry the family name. Berbig took the name of Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco, and the adoption was formalized in 1990.
Read more about this topic: Catherine Caradja
Famous quotes containing the word america:
“In America the chief accusation seems to be one of “Eroticism.” This is odd, rather puzzling to my mind. Which Eros? Eros of the jaunty “amours,” or Eros of the sacred mysteries? And if the latter, why accuse, why not respect, even venerate?”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father’s house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband’s is almost a cloister.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)