Marion Wilson

Marion Ruth Elizabeth Charlotte Wilson (nee Hesselberger) passed away of congestive heart failure on Saturday January 19, 2013 at her home in Bethesda, Maryland at age 101. Known as Marion or Marutha, she was born December 31, 1911 in Munich Germany, the daughter of Elizabeth Wolfner von Ujpest and Erich Hesselberger. Her father, an officer in the German army, died at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. In her youth she was educated at the Ebemeier School in Munich and the Old Palace School in London. In 1928 her mother married Friedrich Ternes von Hattburg and the family moved first to Vienna, then later to Paris for a few years and then finally to London. In the 1930's Marion studied art at the Academie Moderne in Paris. In London before WW II she volunteered for various charitable organizations and spent winters at St Anton, the Austrian ski resort. During WW II she lived in London with her mother in South Kensington. She was a full time volunteer for the American Red Cross to help in the war effort.

It was in London at the Red Cross headquarters that she met her future husband, US Air Force Lt. Colonel William Joseph Wilson. They were married in 1947 in Briarcliff Manor, New York and moved to the Washington area the same year. They settled in Bethesda, Maryland where she lived for sixty-five years. Beginning in the early 1980’s, Marion worked as a residential real estate agent for Frank S. Philips Real Estate and later Pardoe Real Estate in Bethesda. She became the first docent at the Kreeger Museum when it opened to the public in 1994 and continued as a docent until 2007. She was an artist and avid sportswoman, particularly a skier. She was a member of the Springfield Garden Club and Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda.

A memorial service will be held in Washington on April 12th at 10:00 am at the Bethlehem Chapel of The Washington National Cathedral. Another memorial service will be held in England at St. Giles Church, Stoke Poges at noon on June 6th, and the interment will then take place at the family gravesite in the Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Marion Wilson Memorial Fund – Hear Art See Music, a program for students with special educational needs at the Kreeger Museum, Washington, D.C, or The International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva Switzerland.

Mrs. Wilson’s husband Bill passed away in 2000. Her older sister Baroness Maria Vera Hatvany predeceased her in 1987 in Rome. She is survived by her son Andrew William Wilson of New York, NY, four nieces, one nephew and 11 grand nieces and nephews.