Deborah Mitford | Last of six storied sisters, 94

Deborah Mitford, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the last of six famous sisters in an upper-crust British family whose antics left her countrymen shocked, appalled, and always entertained, died Wednesday at 94.

The death was announced by son Peregrine, who did not release the location or cause. She lived near the Derbyshire estate of Chatsworth House, the neoclassical palace that she and her husband, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, rescued from its post-World War II nadir and revived as one of England's finest country houses.

She will be remembered as the sixth and youngest of the Mitford sisters, whose outlandish behavior and political radicalism seemed to make them characters contrived by one of their chums, the novelist Evelyn Waugh.

Two sisters, Diana and Unity, were friends of Adolf Hitler. Their eldest sibling, Nancy, was a best-selling novelist; another, Jessica, was a Communist who moved to California and wrote her own bestseller, The American Way of Death (1963), a wry look at the underhanded practices of the funeral industry. Pamela led the quieter life of an upper-class countrywoman.

Deborah, or "Debo," emerged as a long-suffering peacemaker.

The sisters' saga proved a great trial to their aristocratic parents, David and Sydney Redesdale.

"I'm normal, my wife is normal, but my daughters are each more foolish than the other," Redesdale told friends. This account may not have been shared by others. "Farve," as he was known, set a model of eccentricity for his children.

The family's fluctuating fortunes caused a series of moves into ever-smaller homes, but Deborah enjoyed a childhood that was essentially of her class and privileged status.

In her late-life memoir, Wait for Me! (2010), she sought to explain if not condone Diana's and Unity's friendships with Hitler.

"I do not share [Diana's fascist] views, but my love for her overcame this side of her character," she wrote. "Unity was always the odd one out."

Selina Hastings, a biographer, called Deborah "by far the most balanced of all the sisters. She was down to earth."

Besides her son, survivors include two daughters, eight grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2004. - Washington Post