GUITY WAMBOLD

WAMBOLD--Guity Kadjar. Mrs. William H. Wambold peacefully passed away on July 14, 2022 in New York City with her family by her side. She was 99. Born HSH Princess Guity Afrouz Qajar (Kadjar) in Golestan Palace, Tehran, Iran, she was the only child of HIH Mohammad Hassan Mirza Qajar, Crown Prince and later Shah in exile of Iran's Qajar dynasty, and of HSH Princess Mahine Banou Malek-Mansour Qajar. Their child was to be the unquestioned legitimate heir to the Peacock Throne. The Qajar dynasty reunified and ruled Iran, or Persia, for 130 years until 1925, tracing its royal lineage through the Safavid dynasty of Iran and to Genghis Khan, while Princess Guity's mother also claimed descent from Sheikh Shamyl of Daghestan and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. A military coup sponsored by British government officials deposed the Qajar dynasty in 1925 to obtain control of Iran's oil, which Princess Guity's father and his brother Ahmad Shah refused to sign over. Her father was exiled, while she remained in Iran with her mother. She grew up and was educated in Iran, Beirut, London and Paris. After World War II, she married USAF Major, later Lt. Col., William H. Wambold, a dashing American war hero and Air Attache in Tehran. He proposed to her in the cockpit of a C-47. Known thereafter at her insistence as Mrs. Wambold, or simply Guity, she embraced life as an American military and diplomatic wife, living with her husband and three children in California and Iran as well as in Taiwan, Morocco, Washington DC, Kansas City, Switzerland, Cannes, New Hampshire, and Southampton, Long Island. She would say, "I love America and its freedom." Following her husband's death after 50 years of marriage, for the last 19 years she lived quietly near Central Park in Manhattan. Born and raised a princess, she was happiest as a wife and mother, becoming a Cordon Bleu cook and avid gardener. As a child she grew up in a walled park stocked with exotic creatures and became a lifelong animal lover, always living with dogs and cats, and when she could, menageries of songbirds. In her youth Guity was a superb equestrian like her father. Her favorite horses were stallions named (in Persian) Eagle and Night Shade. She also taught French, at Sunset Hill School in Kansas City, and managed family properties in Iran and Europe. Guity was a remarkably resilient as well as elegant lady. She witnessed five regime changes in Iran after the Qajar throne was usurped, as the British first expelled the Pahlavi Shah Reza whom they had sponsored, and with the Soviet Union invaded Iran. They considered returning the crown to Guity's father (who died suddenly in England under mysterious circumstances), then installed Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza as Shah. Guity's cousin Mohammad Mossadegh was later elected Prime Minister, and Mohammad Reza Shah fled the country, only to be restored to power by an Anglo-American coup, again over control of Iran's oil. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Guity and her family left Iran, never to return. Throughout these upheavals she kept her sangfroid, minding her family and her interests. She loved her friends and was the life of any party, her conversation slipping seamlessly between English, French and Persian in the same sentence. She was a super sharp bridge player, and her ancestors' ferocity would occasionally flash over a partner's mistake. She read voraciously, including James Michener and any mystery by Agatha Christie, and was an early adopter of Ian Fleming's James Bond books. She loved French cabaret songs, opera and ballet, and while modest in her tastes, she would never turn down a whole Maine lobster or any amount of Persian caviar. Only the child of a Qajar ruler and a Qajar princess could inherit the Qajar crown, and Guity was the last such child. She is survived by her twin daughters, Robin Kadjar Wambold and Kristin Kadjar Liebling; and her son, Ali Wambold; and by five grandchildren, Marina Wambold, Daniela Wambold, Christopher Liebling, Dominica Wambold, and Alexandra Rubin. The family encourages support for nurses and home caregivers and doctors. A funeral service was held on Thursday, July 28, 2022 in New York City, and the family expects to hold a Memorial celebration in the autumn.