The Passing of a Patriarch: Andrew Andreevich Romanoff, Prince Romanovsky (1923-2021)

Prince Andrew at his home in 2015.
Photo (c) Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / San Francisco Chronicle.

On 28 November 2021, Andrew Andreevich Romanoff, Prince Romanovsky, died at the age of ninety-eight. Andrew was the longest-lived male-line descendant of the Romanov dynasty. He was the last surviving great-nephew of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia

Born on 21 January 1923 at London, Andrew was the youngest of the three children of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia (1897 - 1981) and his first wife Donna Elisabetta "Elsa" Ruffo di Sant' Antimo (1886 - killed in London during the Blitz in 1940). Andrew followed two older siblings: Princess Xenia Andreevna Romanovsky (1919 - 2000) and Prince Michael Andreevich Romanovsky (1920 - 2008). Since their parents' marriage was morganatic, Andrew bore the style and title His Serene Highness Prince Romanovsky, which was granted to his parents by the Head of the Imperial House.

Andrew's paternal grandmother: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia

Andrew's paternal grandfather: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia.

Andrew grew up near his grandmother Grand Duchess Xenia (1875 - 1960), who lived in a grace and favour cottage at Windsor. He did not have as much contact with his grandfather, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, as Xenia and Alexander lived separately in exile. Andrew Andreevich received his education at the Imperial Service College. He joined the British Navy in 1942, and served until the end of World War II.

Andrew Romanoff's Petition for Naturalisation, 1954.

Andrew Romanoff's Petition for Naturalisation, 1954.

Prince Andrew's eldest son: Alexei Romanoff, 1969.
This photo was taken when Prince Alexei was a student at St. Mary's College High School.

In 1949, Andrew moved to the United States and settled in Oakland, California. In 1954, he became a US citizen. Andrew studied criminology and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. On 9 September 1951 at San Francisco, Andrew married Elena "Helen" Constantinovna Dourneff (Tokyo, Japan 5 May 1926 - Oakland 31 May 1992), the daughter of Constantin Afanasievich Dourneff and his wife Felixa Stanislavovna Zapalski. Andrew and Helen had one son: Alexei Andreevich Romanoff, Prince Romanovsky (b.Alameda 27 April 1953; married Zoetta Leisy). Andrew and Helen divorced in 1959. In 1968, Helen Dourneff Romanoff married to US Air Force Technical Sergeant Odom Wayne Modling (1923 - 2007), a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

Andrew and Kathleen Romanoff after their civil wedding in 1961.

The obituary of Kathleen Romanoff (1967).
This appeared in The San Francisco Examiner on 10 December 1967.

Andrew remarried on 21 March 1961 to San Francisco native Kathleen Norris Roberts (San Francisco 1 March 1935 - San Francisco 8 December 1967; former wife of Gilbert Jay Roberts Jr.). The couple were joined in marriage by Judge Gerald Levin, who performed the ceremony in his chambers at the Hall of Justice. The bride wore a blue and white Dior print dress with a white coat. Kathleen's sister, Mrs. Hartley Cravens, was her attendant; Prince Nikita Romanov served as the best man for his cousin Andrew. Kathleen was the daughter of Dr. Frank and Mrs. Alice Norris (née McCreery); her grandmother and namesake was the noted author Kathleen Norris, wife of Charles Norris. Andrew and Kathleen had two sons: Peter Andreevich Romanoff, Prince Romanovsky (b.San Francisco 21 November 1961; married Barbara Jurgens) and Andrew Andreevich Romanoff, Prince Romanovsky (b.San Francisco 20 February 1963; married Elisabeth Flores). Tragically, in 1967 Kathleen Romanoff died of pneumonia at the age of thirty-two. Princess Kathleen was laid to rest at the Serbian Cemetery in Colma, where her husband's uncle Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia and his aunt Princess Natalia were also buried when they died in 1989. 

 

Andrew Romanoff and his wife Inez Storer in 2015.
Photograph (c) Todd Pickering

Finally and thirdly, Andrew married artist Inez Mary Storer (b.Santa Monica, California 11 October 1933; former wife of Thomas Tone Storer) on 27 December 1987 in Washoe County, Nevada. Inez was the daughter of architect Franz Nicholas Bachelin and his wife Anneliese "Anita" Maria Camilla Hirtfield.  Andrew and Inez resided in the idyllic town of Inverness, California. Like his wife Inez, Andrew Romanov was an artist, and his works were displayed in numerous exhibitions. He must have inherited the artistic streak that his grandmother, Xenia, and his grand-aunt, Olga, also possessed. A book entitled The Boy Who Would Be Tsar appeared in 2007 and documented Andrew's life. At the time its publication, the prince stated in a profile: "At certain moments I would be called upon to play the game, be a prince. But it's always the people around me who get exited about it. My mother and father just wanted me to grow up to be a real person." 

 

Left to right: Prince Alexei, Prince Andrew with his granddaughter Princess Natasha, Prince Peter, and Prince Andrew, 1995.

Prince Andrew is survived by his widow, his three sons and his daughters-in-law, and his granddaughter.

 

May He Rest in Peace.