Aimée de Heeren

Aimée de Heeren, born Aimée Soto-Maior de Sá or Aimée de Sotomayor[1] (3 August 1903 – 13 September 2006)[2] was a Brazilian socialite and secret service agent tasked with keeping Getúlio Vargas away from a WW2 alliance with Nazi Germany. She was named to the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List in 1996.[3][4]

Aimee de Sá Sottomaior Heeren
Born
Aimee de Sá Sottomaior

(1903-08-03)3 August 1903
Castro, Paraná, Brazil
Died13 September 2006(2006-09-13) (aged 103)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placePalm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Known forSocialite
Spouses
  • Luís Simões Lopes
  • Rodman Heeren
Children1

She was the sister of Vera de Sá Sottomaior, who was married to John Felix Charles "Ivor" Bryce, Randal Plunkett, 19th Baron of Dunsany and Sir Walter Frederic Pretyman. Through her sister, she is the aunt of the 20th Baron of Dunsany.[5]

Early years

Aimée de Heeren was born in Castro, Paraná in 1903. She was the daughter of school teachers, Genésio de Sá Sotomayor and Julieta Sampaio Quentel.

In the late 1920s, she met American inventor Thomas Edison.[6]

Rio de Janeiro
Vargas (left) with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (right), in Rio de Janeiro, 1936.

In the 1930s, she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she married Luís Simões Lopes, chief of staff of President Getúlio Vargas. According to rumors, de Heeren was the mistress of the married president,[7] and lived at the Catete Palace, the seat of the president of Brazil. De Heeren never confirmed nor denied the allegation.

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.[8][9][10][11]

Secret Service agent in Paris

In 1938, she was sent to France to find information for President Vargas. Vargas was invited to join the Axis powers. 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,[12] 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 (now known to be a Nazi agent) at many receptions, including the two Circus Bal events given by Elsie de Wolfe.[13][14] Chanel and de Heeren remained close friends, particularly towards the end of Chanel's life.[15]

According to the US Vogue editor Bettina Ballard, de Heeren, at the time called Aimée Lopez or Aimée Lopez de Sotto Major, made a huge impression on French society:

I particularly remember the season when Aimée was lionized in Paris. She was so pretty, so genuinely nice, carried gaiety with her like a fan, and she was almost eaten alive. Hung with diamonds, she was pushed from fittings to balls, never allowed a moment for private conquest because every hostess needed her for her party to prove that she could draw the lioness of the season. Aimee just wanted to dance and flirt and have fun. That wasn't what Paris expected of her.

— Bettina Ballard[16]

Exile in New York

Due to the Nazi occupation of France, she was forced to emigrate to the U.S., where she met with Joseph P. Kennedy Jr, the oldest of the Kennedy brothers, with whom she had fallen in love while in Europe.[17] 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, the founder of the Wanamaker Department Stores. They had homes in Paris, New York City, Palm Beach, Florida, and Biarritz, but never stayed in one location for very long.[1] The couple had one daughter: Cristina Heeren y Sá de Sotomayor, 3rd Countess of Heeren.

Several times, de Heeren was listed as one of the best dressed women in the world, and a 1941 edition of Time magazine included her in a list of "Ten Best Dressed Women in the World".[18] She was mentioned in magazines such as Vogue.[19]

Receptions

Over the decades she was invited to many high-profile weddings and events of royalty and the political and Hollywood elite, including:

She was also invited to various state receptions in the Élysée Palace by Vincent Auriol, Charles de Gaulle, Claude Pompidou, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, and numerous galas in Paris and Versailles by Alexis, Baron de Redé, including at the Hotel Lambert and the Palace of Versailles.

Later years

She took online courses at the Crèmerie de Paris.[20] This resulted in the creation of the Brazilian White Pages.[21] In 2005, at the age of 102, she traveled to Belgrade to attend the 60th birthday of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, at the White Palace. She died the following year, in New York City, at the age of 103.

According to the phone book of Biarritz, until she was aged 102, she swam in the Atlantic daily while in the city.[22]

References
  1. Rasponi, Lanfranco (1968). The golden oases. Putnam. p. 189. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  2. Paid Notice: Deaths – Heeren, Aimee de sa Sottomaior
  3. Vanity Fair Best dressed list
  4. Zilkha, Bettina (2004). Ultimate Style – The Best of the Best Dressed List. p. 160. ISBN 2-84323-513-8.
  5. "Person Page 9125". The Peerage. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  6. Charlie Scheips, Elsie de Wolfe's Paris - frivolity before the storm, New York, Abrams Books, 2014, 159 pages, citation and photo on page 129
  7. Morais, Fernando (1994). Chatô, o rei do Brasil. Companhia das Letras. ISBN 9788571643963. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  8. "Portuguese review on President Vargas Diary". Archived from the original on 2014-09-06. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  9. "Portuguese article in Terra". Archived from the original on 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  10. Portuguese article in Istoe
  11. Portuguese article in Marie Claire
  12. The spectator. F.C. Westley. 1 January 2004. p. 44. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  13. Charlie Scheips, Elsie de Wolfe's Paris - frivolity before the storm, New York, Abrams Books, 2014, 159 pages, page 69
  14. PDF file of the Book Elsie de Wolfe's Paris
  15. Coco Chanel and Aimée de Heeren, history of the Cremerie de Paris
  16. Bettina Ballard In my fashion – memories, New York, David Mckay Co, 1960, 312 pages
  17. "Aimée de Heeren". Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  18. "Aimée de Heeren". New York Social Diary. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  19. Vogue. Condé Nast Publications. April 1998. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  20. History of the Cybercafe de Paris (written in French) with pictures of Aimée de Heeren taking internet lessons when she was already over a 100.
  21. Brazilian Whitepages created with the help of Aimée de Heeren.
  22. Phone Book of Biarritz mentioning the 2 Queens of Biarritz, Aimée de Heeren and the Empress Eugenie


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