Annette De la Renta

Short Biography

Annette de la Renta (born December 24, 1939), an American philanthropist and socialite. Born Anne France Mannheimer and nicknamed Annette, she is the only child of German banker Fritz Sjölin Mannheimer (1890-1939), who died before her birth, and his wife, Marie Annette Reiss (later known as Jane Engelhard, 1917-2004). Her German-born maternal grandfather, Hugo Sjölin Reiss, was the Brazilian consul in Shanghai, China.In 1947, after her mother moved to the United States and remarried, Annette Sjölin Mannheimer was adopted by her stepfather, Charles W. Engelhard, Jr., an industrial magnate, and became Annette Engelhard.