Marianne Josephine Woudhuysen died peacefully on September 30, 2017 at her home in Greenwich, Conn.
She was born on September 19, 1921, to Maurits and Marie de Kadt in Haarlem, the Netherlands. When war came to the Netherlands in 1940, her family was vacationing in southern France and managed to leave from there for the United States.
In New York City, Marjo, as she was called, reconnected with a Dutch friend, Andries (Dries) Woudhuysen, who had escaped the German occupation through Sweden, and then made his way to the United States through the Soviet Union, Japan, and Canada. They were married in New York City in 1942.
The couple moved to wartime London, where they lived until after the end of the war and where Mr. Woudhuysen served with the Dutch armed forces and later the Dutch Foreign Service. Mrs. Woudhuysen served in the Red Cross woman’s military auxiliary organized by the Dutch government in exile.
After the war, they moved to Washington D.C., where he served as Financial Attaché at the Dutch Embassy. In 1952, they moved back to New York City, when he joined the investment-banking firm of Burnham & Company, later Drexel Burnham Lambert, and went on to become a prominent international security trader.
In 1956 they settled in Rye. Marjo became a well-known member of the Dutch community in New York City and served for many years in several charities in Rye of which the Twigs of Westchester County and its shop, Twig Antiques, were especially dear to her. She also volunteered at United Hospital in Port Chester.
After her husband retired, he was asked to serve as a consultant at Burnham & Company’s Tokyo office. During the nearly two-year assignment in Japan, Mrs. Woudhuysen became happily involved with the American community there and it was one of the highlights of their early retirement.
When they returned to the States, they settled in Greenwich, where Marjo volunteered with Neighbor to Neighbor.
The Woudhuysens shared a long and happy marriage with travel to many countries and an active social life. Marjo was a woman with an outgoing personality and a well-developed sense of humor, and a great hostess who loved to entertain her many friends. Dries died in 1996.
Shortly before her death, she celebrated her 96th birthday with her daughter and a group of friends. She was devoted to her daughter and granddaughters and loved spending time with them.
She is survived by her daughter, Marianne Penn of Norwich, England, and her granddaughters, Caroline Penn of London, and Victoria Penn of Norwich. Her younger sister Edith and elder brother Sidney predeceased her.
A celebration of Marjo Woudhuysen’s life will take place at a future date. Donations in her memory may be made to Mercy Ships or Doctors Without Borders.
