The girls recently completed biographical essays on historical figures for their Excellence In Writing class. They each selected a notable person that piques their interest, and no one ought to be surprised by those subjects.
They’ve given me permission share/save them here.
Marie Antoinette – by Ar, 6th grade
Marie Antoinette was the last Queen of France and the most famous, known for being over-the-top, opulent, and ostentatious.
Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755 in Austria and originally named Maria Antonia. She had 11 siblings when she was born. Her mother was the Empress of Austria, and after her father died her brother became Emporer.
Maria was just thirteen when her mother decided she should marry Louis Auguste, the future King of France, so she had a tutor who taught her French. Maria became Marie Antoinette when she married Louis Auguste on May 1770 in the palace of Versailles.
Marie’s new, young husband was crowned King shortly after his grandfather’s death. Now Marie Antoinette was Queen. She gave birth to her first daughter on December 20, 1778, Princess Maria Therese. On October 22, 1781 she had her first son, the Dauphine Louis Joseph. Four years later she gave birth to another son, Louis Charles, who died shortly after he was born.
Marie Antoinette is famous for having lots of parties, living in luxury, and having big poufy hair. She was very selfish and spent lots of money on herself, instead of helping her people. She was so out of touch with her people that they started a rumor about her. The story was that when she was told she needed to feed her people she said: “Let them eat cake!” The remark was meant to show how out of touch she was with her people.
France was mad at the King and Queen for not feeding them, so they broke into Versailles. The royal family was under disguise in Paris for about two years but finally were caught. Louis Auguste went to court for his crimes and was sentenced to death by guillotine and was killed the morning of January 21, 1793. Marie’s son was locked in a tower with a mean tutor. Marie Antoinette went to court almost a year later and was also sentenced to death by guillotine.
Audrey Hepburn – by Au, 8th grade
Audrey Hepburn is not like other famous actresses, she has a lasting legacy for being timeless, talented, and tenderhearted.
Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4th, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. Her real name was Audrey Kathleen Ruston. When Audrey was only five, her mom sent her to boarding school, but then decided to put her in ballet school. When Audrey was ten she still wanted to be a ballerina but was made fun of because she was too tall. Around the same time, World War II broke out, so her family had to move to Holland to avoid getting caught by the Nazis. Moving around helped her learn many languages.
After the war was over, Audrey and her mother decided to move to London. They had very little money. Audrey later realized that no matter how much she tried, she wasn’t going to be a ballerina, she was simply too tall, so she decided to try acting. Instead of going to college, she decided to go to theatre school in London, even though she had no experience. Later, she became a big hit in dozens of movies. She won lots of awards for them. One of her most popular movies was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is a classic and my personal favorite.
After starring in quite a few more movies, Audrey was married and had two sons, Sean and Luca. Audrey decided that she would retire from acting early so she could spend more time with her kids and be a fulltime mom.
When her children were all grown up, Audrey put her fame to good use by becoming a Goodwill Ambassador for the organization UNICEF. It was the same organization that helped her during the war! Putting her many spoken languages to good use, she would travel to poor countries helping people in need. She was known for helping people with AIDS, which a lot of people were too scared to even touch.
Audrey Hepburn died after a full and fulfilling life from appendicular cancer on January 20th, 1993. To this day, I think she is still a great role model and will be remembered forever. I wish I could have met her.
Related:
Firstborn’s Audrey Hepburn Birthday
Center Sister’s Marie Antoinette ‘Let Her Eat Cake’ Birthday
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