The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.Read the press release here. Hidden from view is a separate library for her collection of 10,000 volumes on horticulture, a pool house designed by I. M. Pei, and the home that Bunny built 60 years ago. Lloyd reiterates that John Edwards remains in his grandmother's good graces. The Rose Garden would go on to become a place where President John F. Kennedy and presidents after him hosted significant events. Mellon was the second wife of philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon. Copyright 2022 by Mac Griswold. . Mellons Oak Spring Garden Library, which houses her collection of rare books, manuscripts, works of art and other pieces relating to her hobbies, is one of the largest repositories of horticultural information and is visited by scholars worldwide. Only two years before Jackie won her settlement, Paul Mellon, for the first time and thanks to Forger, had settled an annual $500,000 on Bunny, allegedly for charity, meaning that she no longer had to ask her husband for every cent of his money she spent. She's going to do what she wants, and that's the way it's going to be.". Her social climbing didnt always follow an easy path. One weekend in June, she beamed as her 3-year-old great-granddaughter, Fiona, put stickers all over her arms. Paul Mellon once told The Washington Post, "The thing I envy about Bunny is that from the age of 5 or 6, her whole life has been occupied by horticulture, by one consuming thing." As society bandleader Peter Duchin says, "Bunny is a person with wonderful taste. Each also found in the other a sister more compatible, loyal, and loving than her own. On Halloween in 1961 the Wildenstein & Co. Manhattan gallery opened a charity exhibition of Schlumbergers jewels, which included some of Bunnys pieces. MANHATTAN Listerine heiress and philanthropist Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon has preferred to shun the media spotlight since long before her financial largesse became tangled up in the John Edwards mistress scandal. Mellon died of natural causes at her 4,000-acre estate in Upperville, Va., her lawyer told The New York Times. Yet when Sam Kasten of Nantucket Looms, a company that wove custom fabrics for her, wrote her that his visit to the Garden Library at Oak Spring was a life-changing event, she called him in tears. Jackie Kennedys home on martha's vineyard, known as red gate farm, would benefit from the guidance and expert gardening of bunny mellon. Bunny told me that a Black voter just leaving the polls handed her his pen and said with a wink, Here, missus, use this. This was Bunnys adult baptism into the importance of her vote. I want to come back. Another note from Jackie that Bunny inserted into one of her little blue daily datebooks went the other way, with Jackie comforting her friend about some problem and telling her, Dont worry, we will just beat the world back again., When in 1989 Jackie looked back at their years as friends, she wrote, Ever since Ive known you (33 years ago this spring) you have meant as much to me as any person in my life. Thanking Bunny for her love and care, her wise and strong support, and for all she had meant to the Kennedy children, Jackie closed with, I want you to be as happy as you make me.. Jackie, on the other hand, was an outright celebrity, and she quickly gained a new kind of celebrityor notorietywhen she married Aristotle Onassis. When Jackie left her straw hat on Nantucket after one of their lunches, Bunny sent the plane straight back from Cape Cod to fetch it. Bunny opined that ones bed was important, because it held so many thoughts. Jackie agreed, saying, It is a celebration, a bed, and then Bunny decided they should design one for her. Rachel Lambert Mellon (August 9, 1910 March 17, 2014), often known as Bunny Mellon, was an American horticulturalist, gardener, philanthropist, and art collector. A reclusive banking heiress who gave $725,000 to John Edwards that was used to conceal his affair with a former campaign aide is finally speaking out about the scandal. John Edwards turned away from Bunny Mellon's memorial by her family | Daily Mail Online. [10][22], Mellon gathered a sizable collection of works by artist Mark Rothko, having purchased many of his 1950s works directly from his New York studio. She was involved in the business of nature and beauty, design and implementation, Forger said. Bunny and Jackie often turned to each other when they were depressed: Jackie wrote to Bunny in 1976 that she wanted to have a little boat and learn how to sail so she could anchor off Oyster Harbors. During World War II, Lloyd and Mellon roomed together in London, where both worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. Jackie and Bunny sometimes looked for happiness together on real estate adventures, finding the escape they dreamed of. The guest house comes with two separate bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and a laundry room. The scale of Bunnys wealth meant she could indulge herself in over-the-top moments, as when she treated a magnificent Milton Avery painting that hung in her house on Nantucket as merely a snapshot of herself and her friend Jackie. She'd long since given up being upset. Thats the story. Mellons attorney said she had no idea the money was going to hide a mistress. Bunnys eye for space and proportion and what could be made of them was matched by Jackies discernment about people and events and how best to employ and frame them. He pleaded not guilty and is preparing for trial this fall. Rachel Lambert Mellon (affectionately nicknamed Bunny) was the heiress to a mouthwash fortune. [10] By this marriage, she became the stepmother of Timothy Mellon and Catherine Conover Mellon (later Mrs. John Warner and now known as Catherine Conover). July 25, 2011, 10:10 AM. They reportedly had homes in Antigua, Paris, New York, Washington, Nantucket and Cape Cod, and a mile-long runway for their private jet. Although she grew up in a world where horses were thoroughbreds, society was glittering, and marriage was eventually to Paul Mellon, as fellow decorator Bunny Williams put it, she was no Brooke Astor, entertaining twenty-four for dinner three nights a week, but, rather, a sculptor, sculpting space She created an American vision of English country house style.. . Mellon described in the 37-page federal criminal indictment as "Client 5, an elderly heiress" nearing her 100s "had not the slightest inkling" that anything was wrong with her investments with Starr, who had been a friend and financial advisor for three decades, her lawyer said. Yet now the private Mellon, who turns 101 on Aug. 9, has become front-page news for her unwitting involvement in two unrelated criminal cases. [30]:157 She was an early financier of Edwards' 2008 Democratic primary run, offering an initial US$1 million commitment to his campaign, and eventually contributing more than $3.5 million to organizations supporting his candidacy. [22], She maintained homes in Antigua, Nantucket and Oyster Harbors, Cape Cod, two apartments in Paris, and a townhouse in New York City. Edwards aide Andrew Young, who wrote about Mellon and Edwards relationship in his tell-all book The Politician, said Mellon became so distraught when the media attacked Edwards over a $400 haircut that she sent him a letter offering to help. I never wore it again. Trescher mentioned how surprised hed been at first to find that Mrs. On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted on using campaign funds to help cover up an affair and pregnancy during the 2008 presidential campaign. The gardens carefully designed by the late Mellon, include flower gardens, herb and vegetable gardens. According to Bunny, Jackie said coolly, Absolutely not. Lowell then said, Well, what are you going to do? Jackie answered him by saying, Well, weve got it all planned, and that was that.. "[14] Although this remark was made in reference to garden design, it has frequently been taken to encapsulate her attitude toward personal privacy and lifestyle choices. The voice on the phone was frail but clear, with a hint of Southern gentility. Thats the antithesis of what her style would be, he said. "I have lived for 99 years and I've never been interviewed by the FBI before!". Bunny Mellon has outlived most of her intimates. Later that same first year of the Kennedy administration she sat at the presidents table at a state dinner for Puerto Ricos governor, and when the cellist Pablo Casals played after dinner, she knew she was witnessing a powerful blend of political power and high culture. Im not sadnot really . In particular, feds were interested in the $700,000 in funds Mellon allegedly made out to Edwards' campaign in the form of blank checks annotated "furniture," the Daily Beast said. From left: AP (2); Jonathan Torgovnik / Getty Images for Newsweek, Gutting IRS Will Help Wealthy Avoid More Taxes | Opinion, Eliminating Income Tax Means More Money for Americans | Opinion. All-Star and perfect game pitcher dead at 62 UPPERVILLE, Va. Rachel Bunny Mellon, a wealthy arts and fashion patron, friend of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy She is without the trappings someone would associate with an heiress.. Jackie honored her friends creative achievementssomething that Bunny welcomed. The historian William Seale, a longtime observer of Executive Mansion occupants in his post at the White House Historical Association, remarked, Jackie didnt have money. [27], Mellon's second husband, Paul Mellon, died in 1999, aged 91. After prosecutors learned that Edwards had visited Mellon on May 26even as his lawyers were conducting unsuccessful plea-bargain negotiations prior to the indictmenthe was banned from contacting his benefactor. This page was last edited on 20 November 2022, at 15:10. "[4][31] While investigating Edwards, the Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Mellon at Oak Spring on two occasions in 2010. In October 1946, as the Mellons were riding home together after fox hunting, Paul's wife, Mary, suffered a severe asthma attack, dying hours later. But Mellon was back in the news on Thursday thanks to the alleged financial misdeeds of her long-time financier, Kenneth Starr. The life she's led was all about that kind of thing. Given Paul and Bunnys emerging stature in philanthropy and the arts, and Jackies celebrity, when Bunny and Jackie joined forces for a cause, they invariably succeeded. Their particular combination of money (Bunnys) and fame (Jackies) made them formidable. Her first book, Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! In going through her papers in the months after her death, I found that she had wrapped many important keepsakes, such as gifts from her Grandpa Lowe, in white paper and tied them up with a blue ribbon, using the two colors as signals to show how precious the things were to her. She lives in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. women hell-bent on making their daughters marriageable. No better armor than a watchful friend: Bunny Mellon quietly walks with Jackie Kennedy from Martin Luther King, Jr.s funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, 1968. As an adult, her fluency with pencil and ink led her to illustrate her letters, underlining the emotions they expressed. Bunny and Jackie dined at Johnnys small clapboard house on East 92nd Street before heading to the gala, the proceeds of which would support the preservation of Newport, Rhode Islands trove of 18th- and 19th-century architecture. However, her best and dearest families were made up of friends who shared her passions and tastes. She turned to her husband, a lifelong Republican, who said he certainly wasnt going to lend her his pen! A family thats been in the area for a couple of generations purchased the property. Her interests in gardening were first cultivated while watching Olmsted Brothers gardeners tend her family's New Jersey home. "He's done a very good job of maintaining the sense that 'Bunny, I want to be your friend; Bunny, feel sorry for me in this predicament, we'll get through this together,'" says Lloyd. But Mellon struck up new life-affirming friendships with much younger, artistic men. Copyright 2009-2018, New York Public Radio. (French, ca. For most of her 103 years, Rachel Bunny Lambert Mellon kept secret the intimate details of her life. These properties were sold in the years preceding her death. They had two children: Stacy Barcroft Lloyd III, and Eliza Winn Lloyd. In Jackies case, it was her main article of faith that a womans job was to raise the children, and if she made a mess of it, the rest of what she did amounted to nothing. [15], Described as a resilient centenarian, a bout with cancer[35] and ongoing macular degeneration nonetheless slowed her activity. 2023 Cohen Media Publications LLC. The following month, Mellon's lawyer told the Manhattan District Attorney's office that the transfer was never requested nor approved, the complaint says. [10] In a 1969 New York Times article with the Mellons, she proclaimed that "nothing should be noticed. Be kind. Stepping up to the polls with Paul, Bunny said, she found she didnt have anything to write with. Old stone walls surround the sun-dappled rolling fields, which feature two enormous greenhouses and a football-field-size cutting garden with branches of fruit trees entwined in a not-seen-in-nature pattern. And what a past it was. I have so much to do.". Even though her closets contained racks of magnificent Givenchy and Balenciaga couture, she wanted to be buried wearing the simple college graduation gown that she had worn to receive an honorary degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. JFK had just published Profiles in Courage, a volume of studies of senatorial political bravery that had won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize and would help him in his run for the presidency.They met in 1958 when Adele Astaire Douglass, an old friend of Bunny and Pauls and then a Virginia neighbor, brought her guest Jackie to Oak Spring for tea not long after the birth of her daughter, Caroline. A self-taught botanist, Mellon was tapped by her friend Jacqueline Kennedy to design the White House Rose Garden. I don't like complicated people." The True Story of Jackie & Bunny's Friendship, Randall Hagadorn / Courtesy of Gerard B. Lambert III, Mark Shaw Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Personal Papers John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images, Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth's Relationship, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Lloyd, her grandson, says, "I don't think there's ever going to be a moment for her to sit back and reflect. She was loyal beyond anything and we gave each other space. This story has been shared 209,091 times. After their divorce, she married his friend Paul Mellon at the time, reportedly, the worlds richest man. With Huffman's help, Mellon began sending checks to the decorator marked "an antique Charleston table" and "bookcases." She contributed more than $3.5 million to Edwards's issues organization and to PACs supporting his candidacy. "[32] The funds were secretly used to support Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom Edwards had an extra-marital affair and child. Cristofaro Munari, attrib. [11] Her work was strongly influenced by French gardeners Andr Le Ntre and Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie. Mellon also was known for her exquisite taste both in fashion and in decorating. Jackies wardrobe of state clothing, as she called it, was like that of Queen Elizabeth II in its clear, solid colors and off-the-face hats but modernized with cleaner lines and greater ease of movement. ", Mellon and her late husband Paul recommended Starr to friends, and she is mortified that they have suffered, saying, "The worse thing is the people he stole money from." One of the works, No. This could also lead her astray: late in life, hoping to try her hand at politics, she bet on the wrong horse with handsome John Edwards, only to find herself entangled in an unsavory state of affairs. Jackie found a parent who suited her better than her own mother, the socialite Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss, while Bunny gained a daughter very different from Eliza. She had been raised in a family that believed a woman should not advertise herself, and yet its clear that she wanted some sort of recognition for the importance of her work, especially for the Rose Garden. "It's a crush." She's a classic, the epitome of a society that is no longer with us.". Ted Kennedy with Bunny Mellon in Cambridge, Mass. According to Griswold, Paul Mellons very public affair with Dorcas Hardin, for one, caused his wife such pain she distracted herself with increasingly bigger and bolder projects the expansion of the National Gallery of Art, the flourish of the Kennedys White House Rose Garden. From Tuxedo Park to Virginia to the White House, Griswold escorts us through Mellons life as we meet icons of culture, fashion, and politics: Queen Elizabeth and Jackie Kennedy, Givenchy and Balenciaga, JFK and I.M. [18][10][19], In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden. But so great a talent could not remain forever hidden and neither will yours. Then she adds, "I'm very busy. You dont even have to talk. "He and I were great friends. Mac Griswold is the author of The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island, Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon, and The Golden Age of American Gardens. Mellon spent some of her childhood at Carter Hall, an 18th century mansion in Virginias Shenandoah Valley. Stressing that her sympathies have always been with Edwards rather than his wife, who died last year from cancer, she confides, "You know that John had a hard time with Elizabeth." Jackie Kennedy and Bunny Mellon in Paris together in the 1960s. This could have made for a grim existence. Griswold has mined Bunny Mellons personal archives for journal entries, poems, and photographs. Bunny was a society figure with an almost pathological dislike for publicity, a trait she shared with her husband. Pei, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Diebenkorn, Katharine Graham. He warned her that she should shun celebrity and stick to becoming a myth. Thanks for contacting us. The doyenne of high society is the widow of Paul Mellon, a billionaire art patron and racehorse breeder. She was forced to give up gardening by 2011, although she continued to swim, do Pilates, and give the rare interview. Rachel Lowe Lambert, nicknamed Bunny by her mother, was the eldest child of Gerard Barnes Lambert, president of the Gillette Safety Razor Company and a founder of WarnerLambert, and his wife, Rachel Parkhill Lowe. Paul Mellon, a renowned art collector, philanthropist and thoroughbred breeder, died in 1999 at age 91. She had political and social power but not financial power. Although Jackies friendship with Bunny ran deeper than access to Mellon money, once Jackie was no longer in the White House, she became aware of the ease that assets like Bunnys offeredsuch as the peace and privacy of the Mellons house on Antigua, where they retreated in the first traumatic days of January 1964. As it was being built, the two women considered its furnishings. Rendered a This story has been shared 107,512 times. Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise by Mac Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is available online and in stores now. She was eulogized by her friend Frank Langella, who described himself as "a rough Jersey kid" whom Mellon taught "how to listen, dress, never be vulgar, respect all people, be humble, avoid hubris, write thank-you notes, never boast, be curious and 'above all, be loyal'". Bunny tolerated his paramours, even inviting one mistress to join them at their Antigua estate. Sally Bedell Smith quotes Jackie as telling a journalist right after the election that she would describe Jack as rather like me in that his life is an iceberg. Her appetite for prestige, although ever discreet, only increased with her second marriage, to Mellon, in 1948. "They were on the same wavelength," says one of Isabell's friends. The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts. Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. Beneath their perfect society manners and oddly similar whispering voices ran an electric current of power. The Fall of Feminism: Jessa Crispins Why I Am Not A Feminist. [7][36] Her funeral was held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, which the Mellons had gifted to the community in 1960. Her grandfather, Jordan W. Lambert, created Listerine. Even as a child, Bunny had depicted her surroundings in sketches and paintings.
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