N.E.I. Governor’s daughter Christine Tjarda succumbs at 76

Interred in the Netherlands

BALTIMORE, Maryland - A wellknown, local patron of the arts who survived imprisonment in the Japanese concentration camp of Tjideng in the Netherlands East Indies, Mrs. Christine J. Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer Cheston, has recently died of cancer at age 76. Affectionately known as ‘Tiny’, she arrived with her family in Batavia in 1936 where her father was posted as Governor General for the Dutch government (‘Jhr. A.W.L.’ survived camps in Manchuria.)

In recent years, Mrs. Cheston took an active interest in the restoration of Borg Verhildersum, a 17th-century manor in the province of Groningen where her paternal family has its roots. Now a museum, the building is home to paintings, artifacts and heirlooms donated by Mrs. Cheston.

A granddaughter of U.S. Ambassador Theodore Marburg who served in Belgium between 1912 and 1914, Cheston was interred in the Netherlands last month.

Mrs. Cheston is survived by her (second) husband Robert, son Tjarda van S. Clagett, daughters Fendine and Christine, and four grandchildren.