His father founded Kappa Sigma fraternity, and owned insurance and real estate businesses before becoming a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
[4] After a civil ceremony, the religious rite required in France was held at her uncle James Deering's Paris residence.
[9] In 1927 he became chairman of the art committee for the 1933 world's fair known as the Century of Progress, and arranged for "the biggest, most comprehensive, most valuable loan exhibition ever assembled in the U. S."[10] Financial problems associated with the Great Depression threatened to reduce the effort to showing popular pictures that would pay off expenses.
[10] On June 10, 1929, he purchased (with cousin Robert) the estate originally built around 1822 by his great grandfather Reuben Grigsby (1780–1863) known as Hickory Hill.
He died on September 8, 1954, while at a vacation home in Seal Harbor, Maine,[13][14] and left his papers to the Newberry Library.
[16] One of their paintings, Femme aux Bras Croisés (Woman With Crossed Arms) by Pablo Picasso from his blue period, was auctioned off for US$55 million in 2000.
[17] Marion's sister Barbara Deering (1888–1987) married Richard Ely Danielson and also donated works to the Art Institute of Chicago.