Daria (Pankhurst) Karageorgevitch (1859-1938)

Mrs Myra Abigail (Pankhurst) Wright, Abbie Pratt, Princess Daria Karageorgevitch

She was born Myra Abigail Pankhurst in Cleveland, Ohio, when she was known as "Abbie". In December, 1877, she married Herbert A. Wright, of New York City, and had one daughter, Harriette. The family story goes that Wright died in Montana in 1880 but newspapers suggested that they were divorced. In January, 1896, Abbie married financier Thomas Huger Pratt and they lived first at 29 Waverly Place in New York before moving to Paris and becoming enthusiastic members of the Dinard Golf Club. In the 1900 Paris Olympics "Abbie Pratt" came third in the Ladies' Golf Championship.

In 1907, she and Pratt were divorced and in June, 1913, she was married at Paris to her third husband, Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch, cousin of King Peter of Serbia. Converting to the Eastern Orthodox Church, she took the name "Daria". Prince Alexis served as President of the Serbian Red Cross during World War I and in the book she wrote, For the Better Hour (1917), Daria describes the effects of the war on Serbia and its people, including the care of the wounded, and their treacherous winter retreat on foot from the advancing enemy over the snowy mountains of Albania and Montenegro with what was left of the Serbian army. They eventually reached Rome by Christmas in 1915. From 1928, Daria lived at the Villa Florentina in Cannes on the Côte d'Azur where she died in 1938.
Contributed by Mark Meredith on 09/10/2022 and last updated on 09/10/2022.