Marie Rose Doria died at Beth Israel Hospital after a brief illness on Dec. 20. She was 94 years old. She had lived on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village since 1956.
She was born Marie Rose Stoisits in Buffalo on Dec. 6, 1918. The Stoisits family were of Croatian descent. They moved back to Austria in 1922. Marie Rose grew up on the family farm in Burgoland, the easternmost province of Austria, near the Hungarian border.
Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Marie Rose found employment in Vienna in the commissary service at Austrian battalion headquarters. Her brother Johann Stoisits died in a military hospital in Kiev, Ukraine, of war injuries suffered during the Battle of Kiev at the time of the German occupation there.
After the war, Marie Rose lived in Magdeburg, Germany, before re-entering the United States.
Another brother, Viktor Stoisits, developed an animal grooming business, including kennels and a grooming parlor. The patrons of Vienna Dog Groomers included pets of Hollywood stars such as Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, among others, plus sports mascots. He groomed pedigrees for the international dog shows and helped promote the industry. When Viktor died earlier this year, Marie Rose inherited his estate in Van Nuys, California.
Marie Rose made pilgrimage to Israel and Jerusalem. She was a member for 50 years of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic parish on E. 14th St. She was widely traveled in Europe and was received in audience by Pope John Paul II in Rome, early in the pope’s pontificate.
A member of the Hotel Trades Council in New York City, she worked as a supervisor of hotel concierges at the Regency and Plaza hotels in Midtown, until retiring around 1978.
In the mid-1950s she married Antonio Doria, a scion of the princely family of the Dorias, descendants of Admiral Andrea Doria, the condottiere (mercenary commander) and cofounder of the Genoese Republic. There were no children of the marriage, which ended in separation.
Maria Rose Doria is survived by nieces and nephews in Vienna, Austria. Memorial services were held in New York and at the Sirovich Senior Center, at 331 E. 12th St., where she was a member for many years.
