Mica Ertegün
Mica Ertegün was a Romanian-American interior designer and philanthropist.
Early life
Mica Ertegün, born Ioana Maria Banu on October 21, 1926, in Bucharest, Romania, was the only child of Natalia Gologan and Gheorghe Banu, a prominent figure in King Carol II’s cabinet and an ally of King Michael I during World War II. Amid Allied air raids, Mica was sent to the family’s country estate. Following the 1948 abdication of King Michael and her father's imprisonment by the Communist regime, Mica and her husband, Stefan Grecianu, an aristocrat 15 years older, fled Romania, traveling via stateless refugee passports to Zurich. Initially penniless, they were supported by friends, staying at the Dolder Grand hotel and later moving to Paris, where Mica worked as a model. Eventually, they relocated to Canada, where Mica spent eight years working on a farm.In the late 1950s, Mica traveled to New York City to meet a diplomat in hopes of securing her father's release. Though unsuccessful, she met the recently divorced Ahmet Ertegün, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, at a dinner. The two were married in 1961 after Mica obtained a divorce from Grecianu.