1 Photo
Nancy van Voorhees, 91, widow of Clifford Irving van Voorhees Jr., died at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 13, surrounded by members of her family. She was 91.
A resident of McKeen Towers in West Palm Beach since 2010, she was born in Manhattan, the eldest daughter of Dr. Arthur L. Washburn and his wife, the former Sona de Got. As Nancy Wickes Washburn, she graduated from New York’s Convent of the Sacred Heart, and made her debut in 1942. After the war, Mr. van Voorhees finished his law degree and the couple moved to Farmington, Connecticut; Old Black Point, Connecticut; and later lived in Gstaad, Switzerland; Darien, Connecticut; Woodstock, Vermont; Manhattan; Southampton; and Palm Beach.
Besides devoting her life to raising five children, Ms. van Voorhees was passionate about and widely read in matters of faith, religion, philosophy, and sociology. Survivors said she was known and adored for her masterful entertaining, often hosting impromptu dinners and musicales for the family and the couple’s many friends. Surrounded by a family of tennis players, she became a “circuit mom,” and loved everything tennis.
Through her father, she was a descendant of William Washbourne, a patentee of Hempstead in 1647. Her mother belonged to the de Got family of France, which included Bertrand de Got, a collateral descendant, who was Clement V (1305-1314), the first pope of France under King Philip IV. Her mother’s mother was a member of the Philbin family of New York, which included Judge Stephen A. Philbin of the Appellate Division First Department, as well as his son, New York Supreme Court Justice Eugene A. Philbin, who was instrumental in creating Central Park in New York City.
Ms. van Voorhees was predeceased by her husband in 2002 and by her youngest child, Peter Cortlandt van Voorhees, in 1995. She is survived by her children, Clifford I. van Voorhees III of Connecticut, Roger Washburn van Voorhees of Connecticut, and Victoria Grey and Sona Reese, both of Palm Beach, as well as eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by two sisters Elisabeth Deihle and Joan Coyle, and a brother, A. Lawrence Washburn Jr. She is also survived by two sisters, Cornelia Granger and Camilla Donnelly. Committal (burial) will take place at the Southampton Cemetery in Southampton on Saturday, September 26, at 11 a.m. Contributions in memory of Nancy van Voorhees may made to: Lourdes-Noreen McKeen, 315 South Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 or http://www.lourdesmckeen.org/donate.
on Sep 21, 2015