Putnam patriot., 1924-10-03
MOURN DEATH OF
 MRS. VAN DER LAAN
Prominent Pomfret Woman Dies Aboard Ship. America
 Bound

The community was shocked and snddened on Monday last. Sept %. by the news of the sudden death of Louise
 Grosvenor van der Laan at sea. on board the steamship President Wilson
 of the Italian line.
 i Mir. and Mrs. van der Laan. accom- i rnnied by her mother. Mrs. Charles I w Grosvener. and Mir. and Mrs. i George Proctor with their son Gros- lvenor of Cambridge. sailed in June for l a leng anticipated European trip. Mir. and Mrs. van der Laan had fingered after the return of the others a month
 ago for few more weeks of travel in
 Italy.
 On Sept. 18th they left Naples. and
 were due in New York on Wednesday. Oct. 1. On Monday wireless mes
 sage stating Mrs van der Laan's seri- ons illness was quickly followed by one
 announcing her death.
 1 Mrs. van der l.aan's sisier Mrs.
 George Proctor. with her husband. met the steamer on it's arrival in New ! York. The body was brought Co Pom 1 fret in the afternoon and funeral ser vices were held at the house on Thurs 1 day afternoon at o'clock. The Rev. ] George Barker of the First Congrega- tional church, of which Mrs. van der Laan was lifelong member. ofiiciat- d assisted hv the Rev. Frank H.
 Bigelow. of Chris, church. The burial.
 which was private, was at the South cemetery.
 Of Mrs. van der f.aan's immediate
 fnmiiv. only her mother. Mrs. Charles W. Grosvenor her sister. Mrs. Proc tor; her nephew. Grosvenor Proctor,
 and her husband remain.
 Louise Payson Grosvenor. the daugh- ter of the late Charles W. Grosvenor and Elizabeth Mathewson Grosvenor,
 was born January :. 1879. in Pomfret. As a child she attended the district
 ichools. later going e Woodstock Academy, prior to entering Smith
 College. Illness interrupted her col- legr course after year spent there.
 and she d'i not return; but took up. instead ti.e study of art. B study whici she pursued throughout her lVse She studied in the Philadelphia Art School and. for many years, in Boston. She became a portrait paint 1T of excellence, and her love of na- ture. and intimate knowledge of it, gave to her landscape and marine work true understanding and quality. During these years she travelled both
 abroad and at home. led by an insatl able desire for experience and knowl- edge. Her love of beauty drew her to
 all the great galleries of Europe. to
 visit the great examples of architec-
 ture. and to know the life and power of the great masters. while her inter-
 est In all human experience took her into all sorts of out -of -the-way places.
 over little-known routes in Italy and
 elsewhere.
 In 1916. on the occasion of the gold en wedding of her father and mother, Louise Grosvenor married Willem c.
 van der Laan of the Hague, since
 when they have established themselves on the Enstover property, established by Mrs van der Laan's father the late Charles Grosvenor. with frequent win ters spent in Boston or abroad.
 In the death of Mrs. van der Laan,
 Pomfret has sustained a grave loss.
 Public spirited to an unusual degree, tirpless in all good works and in com. munity interests. gracious and gifted in every way, she has stamped herself upon her day az it Is given few to do.