Aimée de Heeren, born Aimée Soto-Maior de Sá or Aimée de Sotomayor (3 August 1903 – 13 September 2006) was a Brazilian socialite and secret service agent keeping Getulio Vargas away from a WW2 alliance with Nazi Germany. She was named to the

International Best Dressed List The International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time. The American magazine ''Vanity Fair'' is currently in charge of the List a ...

Hall of Fame in 1996. She was the sister of Vera de Sá Sottomaior, who had been married to John Felix Charles "Ivor" Bryce,

Randal Plunkett, 19th Baron of Dunsany Randal Arthur Henry Plunkett, 19th Baron of Dunsany (25 August 1906 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish peer. An only child, he was the son of author and playwright Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany and Lady Beatrice Child Villiers, daughter ...

and Sir Walter Frederic Pretyman. Through her sister, she is the aunt of the 20th Baron of Dunsany.

Early years

Aimée de Heeren was born in

Castro, Paraná Castro is a municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil. In 2020 it had a population of 71,809 people. The main road running through the town is the PR-151 road. Economy Castrolanda is a colony that was founded by Dut ...

. She was the daughter of schoolteacher Genésio de Sá Soutomayor and Julieta Sampaio Quentel. In the late 1920s, she met American inventor

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

Rio de Janeiro

In the 1930s, she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she married Luís Simões Lopes, chief of staff of President

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

. According to rumors, de Heeren was the mistress of the married President, and lived at the

Catete Palace The Catete Palace ( pt, Palácio do Catete, ) is an urban mansion in Rio de Janeiro's Flamengo neighborhood. The property stretches from ''Rua do Catete'' (Catete Street) to ''Praia do Flamengo'' ( Flamengo Beach). Construction began in 1858 and ...

, the seat of the President of Brazil. De Heeren never admitted to nor denied being his mistress. Decades after Vargas's death in 1954, his secret diary was published with multiple references to his "bem-amada" (English: "beloved"). Some historians believe that the "bem-amada" was Aimée de Heeren.

Secret Service agent in Paris

In 1938, she was sent to France to find information for President Getulio Vargas. Vargas was invited to join the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

. Disguised as a "fashionista", Aimée met many people from society with French, British, and German background. Among them was the German lawyer and Nazi oppositionist

Helmuth James Graf von Moltke Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (11 March 1907 – 23 January 1945) was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He w ...

, who gave her confidential information about Germany. With this information, she influenced President Vargas away from an alliance with the Axis. De Heeren was also seen with

Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...

at many receptions, including the two Circus Bal events given by Elsie de Wolfe. Chanel and de Heeren remained close friends, particularly towards the end of Chanel's life. According to the US ''Vogue'' editor Bettina Ballard, Aimée de Heeren, at the time called Aimée Lopez or Aimée Lopez de Sotto Major, made a huge impact on French society.

Exile in New York

Due to the

Nazi occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

, she was forced to emigrate to the U.S., where she met with Joseph P. Kennedy Jr, the oldest of the Kennedy brothers, who she had fallen in love with while in Europe. Her friendship with the Kennedy family lasted until her death. She later married the Spanish-American Rodman Arturo Heeren, grandson of Antonio Heeren, 1st Count of Heeren, and great-grandson of

John Wanamaker John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838December 12, 1922) was an American merchant and religious, civic and political figure, considered by some to be a proponent of advertising and a "pioneer in marketing". He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a ...

, the founder of the Wanamaker Department Stores. They had homes in Paris,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intrac ...

and

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spa ...

, but never stayed in one location very long. The couple had one daughter: Cristina Heeren y Sá de Sotomayor, 3rd Countess of Heeren. Several times, de Heeren was in the list of best dressed women in the world, and a 1941 edition of ''Time'' magazine included her in a list of "Ten Best Dressed Woman in the World". She was mentioned in magazines such as ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

''.

Receptions

Over the decades she was invited to many high-profile weddings and events of royalty and the political and Hollywood elite, including: * Wedding of the Shah of Iran to Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari (12 February 1951) * Guest at Charles de Beistegui Le Bal oriental at

Palazzo Labia Palazzo Labia is a baroque palace in Venice, Italy. Built in the 17th–18th century, it is one of the last great palazzi of Venice. Little known outside of Italy, it is most notable for the remarkable frescoed ballroom painted 1746–47 by Giova ...

in Venice (3 September 1951) * The

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive ...

(2 June 1953) * Wedding of John F. Kennedy and

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

(12 September 1953) * Wedding of

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. Kelly ...

Prince Rainier Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest-ruling m ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

(19 April 1956) * The Inauguration Ceremony for President John F. Kennedy (20 January 1961) * Guest at Baron Alexis de Redé's Oriental Bal at

Hôtel Lambert The Hôtel Lambert () is a ''hôtel particulier,'' a grand mansion townhouse, on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. In the 19th century, the name ''Hôtel Lambert'' also came to designa ...

(5 December 1969) * The inauguration ceremony for President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

(20 January 1981) *

Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer The wedding of the Prince of Wales (future King Charles III) and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral in London, United Kingdom. The groom was the heir apparent to the British throne, and the bride was ...

(29 July 1981) She was also invited to various state receptions in the

Élysée Palace The Élysée Palace (french: Palais de l'Élysée; ) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic. Completed in 1722, it was built for nobleman and army officer Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, who had been appointed Gove ...

Vincent Auriol Vincent Jules Auriol (; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1947 to 1954. Early life and politics Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Auri ...

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

Claude Pompidou Claude Jacqueline Pompidou (née Cahour; 13 November 1912 – 3 July 2007) was the wife of President of France Georges Pompidou. She was a philanthropist and a patron of modern art, especially through the Centre Georges Pompidou. Life before ...

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

and

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a Politics of France, French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to ...

, and numerous galas in Paris and Versailles by Baron Alexis de Redé, including at the

Hotel Lambert A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

and the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

Later years

She took online courses at the Crèmerie de Paris. This resulted in the creation of the Brazilian

White Pages A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

. In 2005, at the age of 102, she traveled to

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

to attend the 60th birthday of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, at the White Palace. She died the following year, in

at the age of 103. According to the phone book of

, until she was aged 102, she swam in the Atlantic daily while in the city.Phone Book of Biarritz mentioning the 2 Queens of Biarritz, Aimée de Heeren and the Empress Eugenie
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heeren, Aimee 1903 births 2006 deaths Brazilian centenarians Brazilian expatriates in France Brazilian expatriates in the United States Brazilian socialites People from Paraná (state) Women centenarians