Obituary of Edmee Schless
EDMEE de M. SCHLESS
Anne Louise Edmee Boula de Mareuil Schless, a New Canaan resident since 1973, died at her home on Tuesday, January 5, after a brief illness.
Born on December 21, 1921, in Paris, she was the second of nine children of the Count and Countess Antoine Joseph Boula de Mareuil. A graduate of the Sorbonne, she was working as a journalist and translator for Time-Life when she met Howard Schless shortly after World War II. They married in 1951 and moved to the United States, settling in Riverdale, New York, when Professor Schless began his career as a mediaevalist at Columbia University.
Edmee Schless, an expert in European history, taught French and Classical languages in private schools from 1962 until she retired in 1994 as the head of the language department at St. Luke’s School in New Canaan. After her husband’s death in 1997, she divided her time between New Canaan and her house in the southwest of France.
Her friends and family will remember this remarkable lady for her dauntless sense of adventure, her dry humor, her avid intellect, and her love of life. Her personal history was interwoven with the history of her forbears dating back to the foundations of Gaul. Fascinating accounts of her childhood in a bygone culture and an adolescence whose family fought with the French Resistance were mingled with equally vivid stories of her relatives’ roles in the French Revolution, the feudal life of the Middle ages, the establishment of the Napoleonic code, the Albigensian uprisings, and innumerable details, artifacts, and tales in which the lines between personal and national history were indistinct.
Her ties to France and to her relatives in France never weakened, but her bond to New Canaan became just as powerful. She developed lasting and rewarding friendships to a great number of its residents, often participating in gatherings which she found intellectually stimulating and personally valuable. Her greatest gratification came from her close bonds with her children and grandchildren. Throughout her life, she remained physically and socially active, leaving behind a family and many friends whose lives were uniquely enriched by her presence.
Edmee Schless is survived by two daughters, Ghilaine Marino of Concord, MA, and Nicole Schless of Madison, CT, and her son, Eric Schless of Old Greenwich, CT, as well as six grandchildren. She also has a large number of surviving relatives in France, including three sisters and one brother.
A funeral mass will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 16, at the Benedictine Grange, Dorethy Road, West Redding, CT. For the convenience of those wishing to attend, a group will leave from the Roger Sherman Inn an 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations will be gratefully accepted by the New Canaan Library in the name of Edmee deM. Schless for a special collection of French literature and history.
Amanda S. Stevenson 
