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Tamara De Lempicka Mansion At 3235 Reba Dr.


sevfiv

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Thought I'd throw this out there...

Tamara de Lempicka (wikipedia, just in case) moved from Manhattan to Houston in 1963 to be near her daughter Kizette (with whom she had a turbulent relationship) and spent about fifteen years here.

Does anyone remember the house owned by her daughter at 3235 Reba Dr. (HCAD link) in River Oaks between River Oaks Blvd. and Bellmeade? (map)

The family (Harold Foxhall was her son-in-law, and I presume Marie Foxhall is her granddaughter) sold it in 2001 and it was demolished, but I read about some craziness that went on there - regular shouting matches when Tamara would visit, crazy demands on her son-in-law to paint purple stripes on the house until he got the right color to paint the entire house...it is briefly described in this quote from Claridge's biography Tamara de Lempicka: A Life of Deco and Decadence:

"Cars slowed down as they passed the site, suddenly so incongruous among the neighborhood's stately houses and classical architecture. Finally Tamara was satisfied, but when Kizette returned, she forced her mother to abort the project. The stripes, however, remained for weeks, and 3235 Reba Drive became a kind of local tourist attraction."

Tamara first lived at the Warwick when she moved here, then bought a condo at Regency House - anyone know any information about those?

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A bump and an idea - for realtors who have access to historical sales/pictures:

3235 Reba was sold in 2001 to the current owners - is there a way to retrieve that data (assuming it wasn't fsbo)?

The public site only lists two years' worth.

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  • 4 months later...
One more realtor plea, i promise - any way to get pictures (if they exist) from the February 2001 sale (may be a late 2000 listing) of 3235 Reba? :unsure:

My realtor friend says there are no present or past listings for 3235 reba in the mls.

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Kizette's obit from the Chonicle. Marie Foxhall IS Kizette

Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Sunday 05/06/2001

Section: Unknown

Page:

Edition:

MARIE C. (KIZETTE)

MARIE C. (KIZETTE) de LEMPICKA FOXHALL, of Polish decent, born in St. Petersburg, Russia on September 16, 1918 to Tadeusz Lempicka and Tamara Gorska Lempicka and a long time Houston resident, passed away peacefully on April 16, 2001 at Regency Park in Houston, Texas. She attended school in Lausanne, Paris and London, as well as at Oxford and received her Master's degree in Political Science at Stanford University where she met and married the dashing Texan geologist also attending Stanford, Harold (Foxy) Foxhall. After a brief residence in Washington D.C., where Foxy served aerial intelligence during the war, the young couple moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where Foxy as State Geologist. They had many friends and jolly parties at their beloved Virginia Beach. Their daughters, Victoria and Christie (Cha), were born in Little Rock then the family came to Houston in 1952 so Harold could work at Dow Chemical. Kizette along with lifelong friends Natasha Rawson, Carmen King, Ellen de Hesse, and Andre Crispin became the core of the "international set" in Houston at that time. They brought a continental flavor to Houston and were among the visionaries who helped build the nascent arts and cultural organizations in the early 50's. Kizette dedicated her party happening expertise to the Alliance Francaise the Annual MFA costume ball, the Ballet Foundation, and various consular functions. She wrote and published the memoirs of her mother the world-renowned Art Deco painter, Tamara de Lempicka, as well as dedicated her life unselfishly to assisting her mother will all her myriad needs as a major art world figure. She was about to commence her own memoirs of childhood and wartime Europe and was excited about her granddaughter's incipient marriage. Kizette and Foxy loved tennis and were founding members of the Houston Racquet Club. She had many friends in Cuernavaca, Mexico where she maintained a summer residence. Kizette was preceded in death by her husband, Foxy. She is survived by her daughters, Victoria Doporto Lempicka and her fianc

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  • The title was changed to De Lempicka Home At 3235 Reba Dr.
  • The title was changed to Tamara De Lempicka Mansion At 3235 Reba Dr.

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