Lillian (Remillard) Dandini (1880-1973)

She was born in Oakland, California, and it is rumored that she may have tutored a young Jack London at the family home. Her father came south in 1854 from Quebec in Canada and having made "a snug sum" mining gold eventually took control of the brickyard in which he was afterwards employed. Joined by his two brothers, the business was incorporated as the Remillard Brick Company in 1879. After her father died in 1904, she and her mother successfully continued to run the company.

In 1932, at the age of 52, she married an impoverished Italian aristocrat 20-years her junior and made him a co-owner of the company. But the marriage was over after just six years during which time he conducted a string of public affairs and in 1942 was imprisoned for tax evasion and embezzling over $50,000 of company money! She may have been quick to relinquish him, but she was less willing to relinquish his title and continued to style herself "Countess Dandini". For twenty years she was the chatelaine of Carolands, her magnificent home south of San Francisco in which she held countless events, notably as a patron of the Opera League of Oakland. She died without children.