Marie

Ever since the collapse of Dowager Queen Marie, when it was rumored but officially denied that she had been poisoned by Rumanian extremists (TIME, April 19, 1937), Her Majesty has been in most delicate health, with leading liver specialists always within call. She suffered from a rare form of cirrhosis of the liver, of which, according to her doctors, only about 50 cases have been known to medical science. Last week in Dresden she had so improved, after a course of treatment, that her physicians felt it safe for her to travel, set out with the Dowager Queen for Rumania. En route Her Majesty showed signs of a relapse. She was carried on a stretcher to her palace at Sinaia, about 80 miles from Bucharest, and there suddenly this week Death came to staid British Queen Victoria's dynamic granddaughter, who became a shimmering, provocative, much-criticized Queen of Rumania and Balkan Royal Matchmaker No. 1. Her last words, whispered to her son King Carol II: "Be a just and strong monarch."

In comparison to the general odium which had descended upon Carol, the Dowager Queen passed away last week at a moment when she had long since been forgiven by most Rumanians for her endorsements of face creams, her exuberant U. S. junket, and the fact that in the end most of her dowagerish intrigues gained nothing for Rumania. She was ever a gay and gorgeous lady in Bucharest, "Little Paris of the Balkans," and she gave Rumanian handicrafts and peasant art incessant, profitable boosts everywhere. She was "The Most Beautiful Old Woman in Europe." As a mother, the Dowager Queen was a flat failure, mistrusted by her children, always trying and failing to run their lives for them, buoyantly certain that "Mother knows best."

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