A Violet in Sandspurs: My Search for the Princess

Independent and head-strong, shocking to her contemporaries, the Princess Rosalie de Mercy Argenteau was a groundbreaker. She traveled alone, smoked cigars, shot pigeons, drove an automobile and frequented Montmartre café society. She lived large. She divorced when it was socially unacceptable and lost custody of her son. Coming from aristocratic nineteenth century Europe to the United States, she continued to live on the edge. The last fifteen years of her life were spent in rural central Florida and then in Tampa where she truly was a Violet in Sandspurs. Her enduring legacy remains the introduction of the Russian Samoyed dog and his son, the first Samoyed champion, to the U.S.