Background
Born in Russia in 1859, rumor held that she was actually the daughter of Czar Alexander World War II
Born in Russia in 1859, rumor held that she was actually the daughter of Czar Alexander World War II
Following the American Civil War, she was the dashing female leader in Edgefield County, South Carolina, in the Red Shirts movement. Douschka often wore a red cape and a red feathered plume in her hair. The Red Shirts blocked the polls to override the newly freed slaves votes in South Carolina to elect General Wade Hampton III in the 1876 governor election.
She was nicknamed the "Joan of Arc of Carolina" for her leadership in the elections.
During their residence in Saint St. Petersburg, Lucy fell pregnant and soon gave birth to a daughter, Francis Eugenia, at the Winter Palace. Douschka Pickens would marry Doctor George Couvier Dugas, a native of Augusta, Georgia.
On December 18, 1884, she and Dugas gave birth to a son, Louis Alexander Dugas III. Douschka died in 1893 at the age of thirty-four after a sudden illness and is buried in Edgefield, South Carolina. Her son, Louis, would die nearly five years later on June 26, 1898, at the age of thirteen.