Allene Tew Hostetter Nichols Burchard Reuß zu Köstritz de Kotzebue (July 7, 1872 – May 1, 1955)[1] was an American socialite during the Gilded Age who became a European aristocrat by marriage.

[6] She married the first of her five husbands, Theodore Rickey Hostetter, a polo player and yachtsman who was one of the wealthiest men of Pittsburgh, in 1891.

[8] They had apartments in New York City at 8 East 65th Street and several country homes including Raccoon Farm in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, complete with polo grounds and golf links, and a summer house at Narragansett Pier.

[12] Reportedly, "[b]efore he was buried the gamblers who claimed that the young man owed them large sums called upon the widow to effect a settlement.

[13] Nichols had previously been rumored to be engaged to Vivien Sartoris, daughter of Nellie Grant and granddaughter of President Ulysses S.

[17] Among those present at the wedding were Burchard's best man, Edwin W. Rice, Lord and Lady Greville (Lady Greville, a fellow American, was the former Olive Grace, widow of Henry Kerr),[18] the Comte de Paris, Mrs. Hinsdill Parsons (Anson's sister and the wife of GE's General Counsel), Capt.

[24] In October 1928, Prince Heinrich XXXIII Reuss of Köstritz accompanied her to the Moulton musicale celebrating Arthur J. Moulton's restoration of the historic Chateau de la Verrières in Verrières-le-Buisson, formerly owned by the Comte de Lavalette, Napoleon's aide-de-camp in his Italian campaign.

[29] In January 1929, she chartered the Indiana, a luxurious houseboat referred to as a "floating palace", to travel up the Nile River in Egypt.

[31] Her new husband was a member of one of the oldest reigning houses in Europe and a grandson of Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach through his mother Princess Marie.

He served as an officer in the Second Dragoons Guard, the regiment of the Empress Alexandra of Russia, and was in the diplomatic service with the German embassy in Paris.

[31] During their marriage, she was known for her entertaining, including throwing a debut party at the Waldorf-Astoria for her stepdaughter, Princess Marie Luise Reuss zu Köstritz in 1932.

[38][a] She negotiated on behalf of Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld leading up to his marriage to princess (and subsequently queen) Juliana of the Netherlands because she was a friend of his mother's (Armgard von Cramm).