Cissy Patterson - Education and Marriage

Education and Marriage

She was educated at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. When her uncle Robert S. McCormick was named ambassador to Austria-Hungary, she accompanied him and his wife, Cissy's maternal aunt Kate, to Vienna. There she met Count Josef Gizycki and fell in love with him, a romance not interrupted even by her return to America, where she lived in Washington, D.C.. In Washington, she was a leading light in society, where the press labeled Alice Roosevelt (daughter of Theodore), Marguerite Cassini (daughter of the Russian ambassador), and Cissy the "Three Graces." Count Gizycki came to America and they were married in Washington on April 14, 1904 despite the objections of her family, which later proved well-founded.

A daughter was born to them September 3, 1905, and was named Leonora Felicia (1905–1999). Cissy went with the Count to his home, a huge feudal manor in Russian Poland. Their family life did not go well. According to some accounts, the Count was an inveterate gambler and womanizer, violent with his servants, and eventually violent with Cissy. They separated and then rejoined several times, but eventually Cissy set herself on leaving. The count tried to keep her in Europe. She fled with their child, hiding her in a house near London, but the Count pursued her and kidnapped the little Countess, hiding her in an Austrian convent while demanding a million dollars in ransom. Cissy filed for divorce, which took thirteen years to obtain. President William Howard Taft and Czar Nicholas II were personally involved in the 18-month effort to secure the release of Felicia. The Czar ordered the Count to return the child to her mother. Gizycki was imprisoned, and reportedly never contacted Cissy or their daughter.