Marjorie von Stresenreuter Childress

Family-Placed Funeral Notice

MARJORIE von STRESENREUTER CHILDRESS A socialite, horsewoman and noted beauty, died Wednesday, November 26, 2003 at the home of her son, Frank O. Butler, II, in Palm Beach. Born in 1908 in Chicago, she was the daughter of Frank Maximillian von Stresenreuter and Countess Laurietta Ford Filopponi. Her motherÕs family built Villa Filopponi at 322 Clarke Avenue in Palm Beach in 1924, and 1250 Astor Street, Chicago. She also lived at 825 Fifth Avenue, New York until 1980 when Mrs. Childress became a resident of Palm Beach. She was a graduate of GirlsÕ Latin School in Chicago and attended Rosemary Hall, now Chaote- Rosemary Hall, in Connecticut. With her first husband, Paul Butler, she moved to Oak Brook, Illinois in 1930. She was an accomplished horsewoman who hunted sidesaddle, and a noted hostess whose skeet and fox-hunting weekends were widely known. She and her husband built the Oak Brook Polo Club, where her father built the first Summer Quadrangle Stables. Mrs. Childress was also an animal lover. In 1936 she singlehandedly entered a burning polo barn to rescue the horses before the auxiliary fire truck could arrive. During W.W.II, she was stationed in Cuba as a lieutenant in the WomenÕs Ambulance Corps, and served with the OSS. She served on the national board of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Mrs. Childress was a member of the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach and of St. James Church in New York. Locally she was a member of the Bath and Tennis Club, the Everglades Club since 1928, the Society of the Four Arts, and the Beach Club. She was also a member of the WomenÕs Athletic Club and the Casino Club in Chicago and of the Colony Club in New York. Mrs. Childress is survived by her sons: Frank O. Butler, II of Palm Beach and Chicago with whom she lived since 1995, and Michael Butler of Los Angeles; daughters: Gwendolyn Mathias Dunaway of Santa Fe and Jorie Butler Kent of Vero Beach and Nairobi; stepdaughters: Pauline Katherine Winn of Yorkshire, England and The Hon. Penelope Dewar Butler of Suffolk, England; son-in-law, George Hall Waterman, III; grandchildren: Reutie Butler Shober, Jorie Waterman Hutchings, Missy Waterman West, Sandra Heise-Butler, Martin Nilsson-Butler, Baroness Paget von Wendell and Adam, Tiggy, Sean and Patrick Butler; and her great-grandchildren: Karl, George, Jess, Elda, Linda, Sylvia, Estele, Rosie and Ashley. After Mr. Butler, she also married Count Johan von Knox, Rudolph Noble, Gen. Harold Childe Bickford, Capt. Albert Ruggles Mathias, Dr. William Dailey Dunaway, and Clifford Conrad Childress, all of whom predeceased her. A funeral service will take place at 5 PM on Tuesday, January 6 at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the Sea Church. Donations may be made to Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach 33407; or the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 424 East 92nd St., 4th floor, New York 10128. QUATTLEBAUM FUNERAL HOME Family Owned and Operated www.Quattlebaum.org To view and sign this Guest Book online Visit PalmBeachPost.com/obituaries