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Name: DE PERIGNY, Margaret Copley, Countess
Nee: Thaw
Birth Date: 9 Jan 1877 Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Death Date: 9 Jan 1942 Naivasha, Kenya
Profession: Philanthropist
Area: Kongoni farm, Naivasha
Married: 1. 1898 George Lauder Carnegie (1876-1921); 2. 1923 Comte Roger Marie Felix Symon De Perigny (1875-1945)
Book Reference: Oserian, Web
General Information:
Web - Historical Background on Kongoni Game Valley Villa Located Near Lake Naivasha, as an African Safari Accommodation in Kenya. Kenya's European Settlers were finding ways of taming Africa's soil and competing with her fractious climatic conditions. To join other aristocrats in Kenya, there came Roger Comte De Perigny and his wife, the former Margaret Copley Thaw, daughter of Pittsburgh railroad millionaire, William Thaw. Born on January 9th 1877, her life had been lived among the industrial giants of the United States. People like Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Henry Frick, together with many scientists, financiers, inventors, engineers, schemers and dreamers, were friends of her father and frequent visitors to her childhood home. Aged 21, she married George Lauder Carnegie, a nephew of the steel magnate-philanthropist, and, in such surroundings, she enjoyed ostentatious luxury. After her first husband died, in 1921, Margaret Carnegie followed a custom becoming fashionable among wealthy American widows. In 1923, she married into the French nobility, becoming the Countess De Perigny. Thereafter, she and her new husband divided their time between his Paris residence and the home they built in 1926 on land at the Naivasha lakeside which they called (after many antelope of this species they found there) "Kongoni Farm". Their beautiful property is today a private park open to visitors who wish to enjoy its entire splendor in untouched surroundings.